A history of world photography from 1839 to the present and its relation to cultural contexts as well as to various theories of the functions of images. Topics discussed in considering the 19th Century will be the relationship between photography and painting, the effect of photography on portraiture, photography in the service of exploration, and photography as practiced by anthropologists; and in considering the twentieth century, photography and abstraction, photography as a "fine art", photography and the critique of art history, and photography and censorship.