Counting on the Unexpected: Aimé Civiale's Mountain Photography.

The article discusses the 19th-century mountain photography of Aimé Civiale. The author explains that between 1859 and 1868, Civiale attempted to introduce photography as a medium for studying the earth sciences through his photography of the High Alps in Europe. The author examines where Civiale's confidence in the medium came from and the confidence in photography in the earth sciences at the time. The author believes that it is the unexpected results of photography that instilled this confidence. The article also discusses the historiographical problem that occurs when writing about images.