Clinical Photography - Theory and Practice
A new textbook on clinical photography has been written and edited in the UK, though it is aimed at a worldwide audience. Published by Routledge, this is the sixth and final book in the series “Applications in Scientific Photography”, with Michael Peres FBCA as the series editor.
“Clinical Photography — Theory and Practice” was published in September 2024 and is the first textbook on the subject for many years. Written and edited by Simon Brown, Paul Crompton and Amy Lake, it was recently presented at the annual conference of the Institute of Medical Illustrators in October where it was enthusiastically welcomed by the delegates there. It is comprehensive, containing 348 pages and almost 250 colour illustrations and photographs.
The book is aimed at both trainee and qualified clinical photographers, as well as non-photographic healthcare professionals who need to take photographs as part of their day-to-day work. It covers basic photographic theory, the choice of equipment for clinical photography, color management and digital image workflow, and a major chapter on standardized representational photography (SRP). This shows the photography of the whole body with recommended viewpoints and magnifications. There are also several chapters, written by invited expert authors, covering photography in dermatology, dental and oral medicine, surgery and the operating room, burns and plastics, pediatrics, orthopedics and telemedicine.
The book includes a history of clinical photography, and two chapters dealing with photography in society and the way in which the camera and taking a clinical photograph can impact the patient, and the legal, ethical and moral issues to do with our work.
The book can be ordered via the Routledge web site. ISBN 9781138891647
Simon Brown has been a BPA/BCA member since the 1980s and was awarded Fellowship in 1995. He is past Chairman and both a Fellow and Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Medical Illustrators (IMI).
Paul Crompton is also a Fellow of BCA and the Louis Schmidt Laureate in 2014.
Amy Lake is a Fellow of IMI and has been involved in education and training in clinical photography for many years, now managing and running a work-based qualification course for clinical photographers for Health Education & Information Wales (HEIW).