But whereas Lartigue concerned himself with boyish subject matter-racecars, flying machines, the choreographed high jinks of his governesses-and the fashionable trappings of the Belle Époque, Shore seems to have barrelled into his adolescence as a fully formed artist. His work in those early days bears little resemblance to the crystalline large-format portraits of lonely American landscapes that would come to define his career.
Along with fascinating examples of early efforts to capture images of society, the book captures well the dual role of the scientific image - as both a tool for discovery and a medium of communication. A reader begins to understand that photography in general, and especially in science, is not just illustrative, it is investigative. And sometimes, as Burgess clearly describes, it is revelatory.