Topical
Magic lantern slides categorised within the topical genre visually reflected current events that were also part of the contemporary written and illustrated press. These kinds of slides included four groups of subjects: (1) society—including national or international politics, economy, culture, education, science and technology; (2) incidents —such as accidents, crimes or natural disasters; (3) travel —showing current images of cities, landscapes or people around the world as well as travel motivated by scientific curiosity, the commercial and tourist industry, or artistic creativity; and (4) sports —through news-related events of interest to national or international public opinion.
Magic lantern slides within the topical genre also included the dissolving view subgenre. Magic lantern slides that belong to this subgenre are diachronic, simulating the passing of time across two or more moments through a gradual visual transformation. They provided added value to the visual presentation of all kinds of events: sights while travelling, natural phenomena, events such as explosions or fires, etc. The effect was achieved by darkening the image shown, while the next one was gradually superimposed.
Drama
Magic lantern slides of the dramatic genre are defined as having five specific properties: (1) recording and level of coding of their images by using recreation of scenic photographs (‘slice of life’); (2) orientation to the professional lanternist market; (3) a social context of public exhibition; (4) high scenic complexity —slides were designed to be shown with the reading of printed texts supplied by the manufacturer—; and (5) the use of contents of the largest dramatic literary tradition in any of their forms: tragedy, comedy, tragicomedy, melodrama, farce, didactic works, or realistic pieces.
The celebrated Life Model slide sequences are a good example of dramatic magic lantern slides: a collection of slides that were marketed from 1870 in England by the firm Bamforth & Co., or in the United States by the New York firm Scott & Van Altena. Life Models collections were composed of up to fifty photographs, sometimes hand-colored, showing extras in elaborate sets and staging all kinds of cultural contents; they were staged accompanied with texts to be read aloud, and, occasionally, they even had songs and / or musical accompaniment.
Topical
Magic lantern slides categorised within the topical genre visually reflected current events that were also part of the contemporary written and illustrated press. These kinds of slides included four groups of subjects: (1) society—including national or international politics, economy, culture, education, science and technology; (2) incidents —such as accidents, crimes or natural disasters; (3) travel —showing current images of cities, landscapes or people around the world as well as travel motivated by scientific curiosity, the commercial and tourist industry, or artistic creativity; and (4) sports —through news-related events of interest to national or international public opinion.
Magic lantern slides within the topical genre also included the dissolving view subgenre. Magic lantern slides that belong to this subgenre are diachronic, simulating the passing of time across two or more moments through a gradual visual transformation. They provided added value to the visual presentation of all kinds of events: sights while travelling, natural phenomena, events such as explosions or fires, etc. The effect was achieved by darkening the image shown, while the next one was gradually superimposed.
Drama
Magic lantern slides of the dramatic genre are defined as having five specific properties: (1) recording and level of coding of their images by using recreation of scenic photographs (‘slice of life’); (2) orientation to the professional lanternist market; (3) a social context of public exhibition; (4) high scenic complexity —slides were designed to be shown with the reading of printed texts supplied by the manufacturer—; and (5) the use of contents of the largest dramatic literary tradition in any of their forms: tragedy, comedy, tragicomedy, melodrama, farce, didactic works, or realistic pieces.
The celebrated Life Model slide sequences are a good example of dramatic magic lantern slides: a collection of slides that were marketed from 1870 in England by the firm Bamforth & Co., or in the United States by the New York firm Scott & Van Altena. Life Models collections were composed of up to fifty photographs, sometimes hand-colored, showing extras in elaborate sets and staging all kinds of cultural contents; they were staged accompanied with texts to be read aloud, and, occasionally, they even had songs and / or musical accompaniment.