This publication on facial wounds and surgical repair, rife with photographs, is a fascinating case study in historical conceptions of who deserves visual privacy (anonymity) in their medical photographs, and how that given anonymity might be inadequate. This text and its photographs mostly focus on servicemen; these men are shown without any anonymization. However, the final chapter of the book focuses on civilians, and all of the eyes in these photographs are painted over in white – a gesture towards anonymity that is not afforded to the military men whose images make up the bulk of the book. The photographs in this surgical book clearly show two things: first, that the perfunctory covering of the eyes that was commonly used to anonymize in historical medical photographs does nothing to truly deidentify these patients in this final chapter; and second, that the social, governmental, or demographic status of different groups of patients affected whether or not they were granted this inadequate visual privacy. The photographs in Plastic Surgery of the Face suggest that civilians in 1920 had a stronger right to anonymity and privacy than servicemen who had already, in a way, given their bodily rights to the state.
Christine Slobogin