University of Cambridge > Talks.cam > Cabinet of Natural History > 'Photography versus the pest': Shell chemicals, mass media and pesticides in post-war Britain

  Browse A-Z

Log in

Googledetails Microsoftdetails

🔐 Log In

Information on

Subscribing to talksdetails Finding a talkdetails Adding a talkdetails Disseminating talksdetails Help and Documentationdetails

ℹī¸ Information

'Photography versus the pest': Shell chemicals, mass media and pesticides in post-war Britain

Download to your calendar using vCal

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Silvia M. Marchiori .

This paper explores the intersections between industrial agriculture, mass media, and extraction by examining colour photographs and films produced by the oil and chemicals corporation Royal Dutch Shell in post-Second World War Britain. In the 1940s, new potent organochloride pesticides entered the agricultural market, promising to revolutionise productivity. Many of these were made from byproducts of oil refining, and were manufactured by oil companies like Shell. To market these new products, Shell spared no expense in the production of glossy photographs and vivid films intended to help farmers to ‘visualise’ the pests that threatened their crops. These images often drew on the expertise of natural history photographers and filmmakers, who had finessed techniques of visualising insects and other pests over the preceding decades. This paper offers a detailed examination of Shell’s marketing in the 1950s and early 1960s and its use of scientific images.

This talk is part of the Cabinet of Natural History series.

This talk is included in these lists:

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.

Other lists

SS03 in the computer science department. Caius MedSoc Talks - Lent 2016

Other talks

Talk TBC Group Presentation 3 Title abstract tbc Group Work Royal Papworth Hospital and Acute Medicine TBC
 

Š 2006-2025 Talks.cam, University of Cambridge. Contact Us | Help and Documentation | Privacy and Publicity