Here we are thinking in, with, and about photographs. Oliver Wendell Holmes referred to photography as the “mirror with a memory.” For the first time in human history it is now possible to record, retrieve, and reconsider photon data from the past. The image in a mirror or a reflecting pool disappears as soon as the subject moves away; the image in a painting gives some sense of what a subject looked like – aggregated and generalized photon data – but does not present precise photon data; the image in human memory remains vital but its precision fades away. What does this new phenomenon mean for being human?

Photo of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes about 1860. In the collection: Harvard Medical School Faculty and Staff Portrait Collection: D-W, ca. 1774-2001