Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
Volume 111 / Number 4
ABSTRACT:
Murder Made Real: The Visual Revolution of the Halftone
- By Michael Ayers Trotti, pp. 379–410
This essay explores the transformation in American visual culture in the late nineteenth century by
investigating the images associated with a series of sensationalized murder stories in Virginia. The
nature of those images changed radically from the antebellum period to the early twentieth century,
largely due to the growing influence of photography upon illustration. This long-term trend culminated
in the introduction of the halftone process in the 1890s, allowing photographs to be printed
mechanically with text on the pages of newspapers and magazines press. This innovation
allowed for the subsequent explosion of images in twentieth-century American popular
culture. This is a notable cultural change that involves more than simply an elaboration
of technology. This movement from erratic, expressive, and rare engravings to more
mechanical, mimetic, and omnipresent photographs in shades of gray altered the entire
economy of visual culture. Even more, the essay argues that illustrations, in fact, meant
something different to Americans before and after this shift.
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