In the Service of Photographic Projection: Photography and Optical Lantern Culture

Recent research demonstrates that the magic lantern played a vital role in the visual culture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in particular through the use of photographic positive glass slides. By projecting photographic images during audiovisual performances, masses of people were entertained, educated or exposed to propaganda. One might infer that photography primarily served and transformed screen practices; however, the popular projection medium brought photography to wider audiences in spectacularised ways, facilitating the circulation of photographic images across various contexts. Despite their interconnectedness, photography and lantern culture have largely been studied from separate disciplinary and historiographical perspectives. Adopting an intermedial perspective, this article examines how photographic practices were employed in the (re)production of lantern slides and explores their circulation, epistemological status and use within optical lantern culture. It focuses on two major French slide manufacturers around the turn of the twentieth century: E. Mazo and Maison de la Bonne Presse. Alongside distributing photographic and projection materials, both companies operated laboratories and studios that produced lantern slides on a large scale. Their catalogues and specialised publications reveal the close connections between photography and projection. Through these case studies, the article demonstrates how photography and optical lantern culture served and transformed one another.