Darwin Had A Camera?

When I first saw the title of the book Darwin's Camera, I reacted much like the man in the photo below. Darwin was a photographer? Why haven't we ever seen his photos before?? How shocking!! My imagination ran wild before I realized that the book is actually about Darwin's use of photography in his illustrated study, Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. But even though he didn't take the photos, it's still pretty neat. It was "the first photographically illustrated science book ever published," according to art historian Phillip Prodger.

Can you write a caption for this engraving?

(From Darwin's Camera, 2009 Courtesy of Oxford University Press)

It makes sense that Darwin, a champion of change and innovation, would be the first to move from drawings to photography. Prodger writes that the scientist searched high and low in studios, bookshops and galleries for photographs that would illustrate the ideas in his book. Without much luck, he turned to the pioneering Victorian photographer Oscar Rejlander to make the images he needed.

Darwin's Camera is a detailed study of that use of photography. But mainly it's just interesting to flip through and look at the odd expressions — like this guy's. Leave your caption in the comments section.