The Devil Is In the Details, or, What Demon Lurks Beneath the Camera’s Focusing Cloth
While visiting the City of Vancouver Archives Web site on June 16, 02008, I couldn’t help but notice an ad for the Bullen Photo Co. at 518 West Hastings St. in Vancouver.
What caught my eye was the clearly demonic or devilish figure beneath the camera’s focusing cloth. Harry Elder Bullen (1880-1963), otherwise known as H.E. Bullen, was that address for one directory year, in 1910. By the time his photography career ended in the late 1940s, he was a well known and prolific commercial photographer. His photographs are found at both the Vancouver Public Library and the City of Vancouver Archives.
I am curious about the iconography of a devil or demon being associated with a camera and photography. What other examples have you seen? And why the devil? A Google Images search revealed the cover of a book published in 1932 called The Devil’s Camera by R.G. Burnett and E.D. Martell (http://research.unc.edu/endeavors/spr2007/images/devils_camera.jpg). The book is about the corrupting influence of motion pictures. You can read more about this book and the evangelical Christian philosophy behind it at the blogzine Endeavors (http://research.unc.edu/endeavors/spr2007/evangelicals.php) published by the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
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