In his historiographic essay “American Histories of Photography,” Anthony Lee claims that the photographic field is “mercurial and eclectic” in both “interests and methods.” This happens, he asserts, “partly because its subject has continually proved to be a moving target . . . and partly because the contours of photography’s multiple histories have touched on so many areas of inquiry—aesthetic, scientific, industrial, and more. For these and other reasons, the American history of photography is...