TY - JOUR
T1 - Pics or It Didn't Happen
T2 - Reading Photographs in the Reef Tank Community
AU - Muka, Samantha
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.
PY - 2023/9
Y1 - 2023/9
N2 - In 1961, Lee Chin Eng jumpstarted the reef hobby, a hobby dedicated to the modeling of coral reefs in captivity, with an article in Tropical Fish Hobbyist. He illustrated the article with eight photographs; these images were meaningful to the hobbyists viewing them and they conveyed both information about the tank system and also claims about Lee's expertise. This paper examines three genres of photographs—landscapes, active, and passive portraiture—that appeared in Lee's article and how and why they have proliferated in the reef hobbyist community over the last sixty years. By tracing the history of these genres, we can better understand natural knowledge producers rely on photographs to exchange knowledge and cement community identity.
AB - In 1961, Lee Chin Eng jumpstarted the reef hobby, a hobby dedicated to the modeling of coral reefs in captivity, with an article in Tropical Fish Hobbyist. He illustrated the article with eight photographs; these images were meaningful to the hobbyists viewing them and they conveyed both information about the tank system and also claims about Lee's expertise. This paper examines three genres of photographs—landscapes, active, and passive portraiture—that appeared in Lee's article and how and why they have proliferated in the reef hobbyist community over the last sixty years. By tracing the history of these genres, we can better understand natural knowledge producers rely on photographs to exchange knowledge and cement community identity.
KW - Lee Chin Eng
KW - aquariums
KW - genres
KW - hobbyist
KW - landscapes
KW - photography
KW - portraits
KW - reef tanks
KW - scientific images
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85164522897&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85164522897&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/bewi.202200050
DO - 10.1002/bewi.202200050
M3 - Article
C2 - 37428469
AN - SCOPUS:85164522897
SN - 0170-6233
VL - 46
SP - 181
EP - 205
JO - Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte
JF - Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte
IS - 2-3
ER -