Technologies of Seeing

This text examines the complex forces pushing and constraining technological developments in cinema. It contests the view that technological advance is simply the result of scientific progress. Rather, the author argues that social forces control the media technology agenda at every stage. Questions posed by this work include why the cinema is 100 years old rather than 120 or 150 years old, why Kodak film stocks have such trouble capturing non-Caucasion skin tones, and why professionals waited thirty years before widely adopting 16mm film.

Brian Winston was a leading figure in British media studies. He was Professor of Communications and Lincoln Chair at the University of Lincoln, UK. He held senior academic posts at UK National Film and Television School, New York University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Wales (Cardiff), and Westminster University. He authored and edited over 20 books, including Claiming the Real: The Documentary Film Revisited (British Film Institute, 1995), Technologies of Seeing: Photography, Cinema and Television (British Film Institute, 1996), Fires Were Started- (BFI Film Classics, 1999), and A Right to Offend (Bloomsbury Academic, 2012).