The mass image : a social history of photomechanical reproduction in Victorian London

We cite from the cover: --
"Walter Benjamin's The Work of' Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936) identified the cultural shift that occurred at the end of the nineteenth century, when photomechanical techniques destabilized existing visual hierarchies and helped initiate the modern media. The Mass Image provides the first substantial account of the emergence of the photographically reproduced image as it traces the expansion of imagery that transformed the artistic and cultural landscape of the 1890s. This book looks in detail at the illustrators, photographers, editors, publishers, wood engravers and reproduction firms who commissioned, originated and produced images in popular illustrated magazines. The book demonstrates that photomechanical reproduction was central to an explosion of hybrid hand-drawn and photographic imagery. These visual fragments provided readers with a meaningful picture of the surfaces of everyday modernity. --
-- Gerry Beegan is a design historian, designer and curator who teaches at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, USA. His writings have been published internationally in the Journal of 'Visual Culture, Design Issues, the Journal of Design History and dot dot dot magazine."
CONTENTS:
A 28-page introduction provides a detailed overview of the contents.
2, 'Imaging the City: London and the Media in the 1890s';
3, 'Wood Engraving: Facsimile and Fragmentation';
4, 'Process Reproduction and the Image Assembly Line';
5, 'The Pictorial Magazine and the City of Leisure';
6, 'The Illustration of the Everyday';
7, 'The Photograph on the Page';
8, 'Learning to Read the Halftone';
together with comprehensive notes, extensive bibliography, and an index.