Photography and Tibet

Abstract

have contributed important essays to this collection, enriching our knowledge of the inherently transnational nature of the lanternist’s work and of the medium itself. The studies that Jolly and deCourcy have solicited each stress the ‘media specificity’ of the magic lantern performance, drawing out the unique perceptual and social experiences these events offered for the contemporary reader’s attention. At the same time, they trace the evolution of individual performances as they were repeated and adapted to fit their audiences’ changing needs. Such emphases encourage us to consider the practices of the magic lantern lecture as preconditions of our own contemporary screen engagements, which – we should be mindful – are also collaborative engagements between a viewer, a producer and a subject. Whether it is in styling the ‘background’ of a home office ahead of an online meeting, sorting a ‘slide show’ ahead of a PowerPoint presentation or tweaking the parameters of a curated stream of information – or simply in discussing a screen experience we have shared – this collection reveals that we draw, continually, on the remarkable competencies that lanternists and their audiences developed in their magic lantern lectures. The Magic Lantern at Work provides a significant contribution to an emerging and interdisciplinary field of scholarship. It casts welcome light on an influential yet often overlooked medium and on the ‘sometimes forgotten people who gathered [around it]’. This collection will be of immense value to scholars of culture and media, postcolonial and imperial studies, and screen and photographic history; as it will be for those who care for or seek to present magic lantern material held in public collections.