I find it interesting that early years of photography is so tightly related to scientific field. Before this reading, I’ve always assumed that the invention of photography is almost entirely artistically driven. I’m also surprised by how complex early photography can be. In particular, that “it was often the case in the nineteenth century that professional or amateur photographers were hired to work side by side with astronomers, microscopists and surveyors” (19.) In this current world where taking a photo is such an insignificant task, it seems hard to imagine a time when photography requires multiple people’s work to decipher.
An interesting artistic opportunity made possible by scientific imaging for me is biomedical art. Using the open resource of scanned biomedical models (like viruses, protein strains, etc.) or doing manual modeling, artists can create biomedical render art or animations. While these creations once were for educational use, now they are more and more diverse and artistic.