'Patrizia Di Bello's Women's Albums and Photography in Victorian England examines a fascinating aspect of photographic practice, the production by women of elaborated albums full of creative invention and wit. These albums provide a window both into the real lives of these women, often confined to the domestic realm and to finely nuanced codes of etiquette, and into their fantasies ... Read moreand imaginations, which frequently disputed or transcended these same codes and realms. Strongly grounded in the social history of Victorian England, Di Bello's account also manages to conjure the visual wonder of these albums, providing them, at last, with the cultural and historical significance they deserve.' Geoffrey Batchen, City University of New York, USA ’In her new book on Women's Albums and Photography in Victorian England, Patrizia di Bello engages in a fascinating discussion of photographs and photographic albums, in which the latter are no longer relegated to a position of mere archival interest, but gain the status of artworks. ... It is a tour de force in art theory granting the study a complexity and breadth which justify its appeal as a work of scholarly interest.’ Art History Show Less