The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another

Chapter 4 focuses on advances in photography. Ramirez opens with a discussion of Eadweard Muybridge, an English photographer famous for his studies of motion. Muybridge worked for Leland Stanford, a two-time governor of California and president of the Central Pacific Railroad. Stanford asked Muybridge to photograph his fastest horse to prove his theory that when a horse ran, it had moments in which all four hooves were off the ground. Muybridge set out to capture this movement, which led to advances in photography—most importantly, the invention of cameras with shutters. Muybridge eventually became famous for his photographic studies of motion. Ramirez then segues into a discussion of Reverend Hannibal Goodwin, a little-known 19th-century inventor. Goodwin created a process for making thin, flexible photographic film, which replaced earlier forms of photography such as the daguerreotype. Ramirez describes Goodwin’s lengthy patent fight with George Eastman of Eastman Kodak, which left Goodwin destitute and largely forgotten despite his contributions to photography.

Ramirez devotes part of Chapter 4 to the shortcomings of early color film at representing Black people. Photographs disseminate information. From the time of photography’s invention in the mid-19th century, white people used it to portray Black people in damaging, stereotypical ways. Kodak initially formulated the chemicals in its color film to portray white faces, which left Black people underexposed: “The only discernible features on them were white eyes and bright teeth on a featureless black shape” (106). Mothers complained when they received their children’s school pictures, but Kodak failed to address their concerns. Kodak employees worked to improve the formulation, not to correct the racial bias in their film but, rather, to cater to chocolate and furniture companies. Both industries needed detailed representations of brown colors for their advertisements. Kodak adjusted its formulation in the late 1970s in response to corporate complaints.

In addition, Ramirez discusses how some Black people pushed back against these negative representations by using photographs to reflect and combat racial bias. The 19th-century orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass had himself photographed to counter the negative images of Black people that pervaded American society:

With laws of the land saying that a slave was three-fifths a person, Douglass sought to show humans, black human beings, at their best. He hoped that whites would see his image as their reflection. While his skin was black, his features were European, since he was of mixed birth. A viewer would see his nose was Anglo-Saxon, his stance was regal, and his posture was powerful. Using his image, Douglass hoped to slay the depiction of the savage (105).

Ramirez continues this examination of racial bias in the early photography industry by pointing out that Kodak was not the only company that supported it: Polaroid assisted the apartheid government of South Africa, which wanted to use Polaroid photos in their passbooks, official documents that controlled the movement of 15 million Black citizens. Polaroid’s ID-2 system facilitated that effort because it produced two color pictures in 60 seconds without a darkroom or chemicals. Company executives initially denied their involvement with South Africa, instead blaming third parties. However, two Black employees of Polaroid, Caroline Hunter and Ken Williams, launched the Polaroid Revolutionary Workers Movement (PRWM) to protest the company’s ties to apartheid. The protests eventually brought an end to the relationship between the company and the apartheid government of South Africa. The PRWM relied on activists and the media to spread information about Polaroid’s activities. After seven years of demonstrations, Polaroid withdrew from South Africa. Nelson Mandela later traveled to the US and thanked the PRWM for its efforts.