A History of Light

the long version

"When was photography invented? In 1826 with the first permanent photograph? If we depart from the technologically oriented accounts and consider photography as a philosophical discourse an alternative history appears, one which examines the human impulse to reconstruct the photogogic or "the evoking of light". The significance of the photagogic throughout the history of ideas is explored via the Platonic Dialogues, Iamblichus' theurgic writings, Marsilio Ficino's texts and the works of Renaissance magus John Dee. This alternative history is not a replacement of other narratives of photographic history but rather offers a way of rethinking photography's ontological instability."--Bloomsbury Publishing.