Over the past one and a half centuries photography has been used to record all aspects of human life and activity During this relatively short history the medium has expanded its capabilities in the recording of time and space thus allowing human vision to be able to view the fleeting moment or to visualise both the vast and the minuscule It has brought us images from remote areas of the world distant parts of the solar system as well as the social complexities and crises of modern life Indeed the photographic medium has provided one of the most important and influential means of expressing the human condition