Have just found (and bought) 'The history of photography' by Helmut & Alison Gernsheim. Absolutely fabulous! It covers 'From the earliest use of camera obscura in 11th Century up to 1914'.

Slowly reading through it. Some interesting & fascinating information in it I didn't know happened or even existed.....

Has anybody else come across this book, and are there other books which cover from 1914 onwards?

Marcus Smith

Check their book, 'Creative Photography'. It covers 1839-1960.

'The history of photography' by Helmut & Alison Gernsheim. Absolutely fabulous! It covers 'From the earliest use of camera obscura in 11th Century up to 1914'.


I have a copy. It is regarded as a classic. One of the earliest surveys of photo history.

Check out "Photography and the American Scene" by Robert Taft. It is also very, very good.

Ed

sounds good, im gonna look for it.

Have just found (and bought) 'The history of photography' by Helmut & Alison Gernsheim. Absolutely fabulous! It covers 'From the earliest use of camera obscura in 11th Century up to 1914'.

Has anybody else come across this book, and are there other books which cover from 1914 onwards?

Marcus Smith

It is a great book!. I have the revised and expanded edition (Thames & Hudson, 1982), retitled: 'The Origins of Photography' by Gernsheim. I found it on a discount book list - hard cover in slipcase - it looks like a collectable book printed on high quality paper and has excellent photo reproductions, including daguerrotypes w/metallic look.

Paul

It would seem there are a number of different variants of the Gernsheims' work. Mine is paperback and entitled "A Concise History of Photography" and has an additional section covering "The Modern Period", which in this case is defined as 1914 to about 1971 when this version was published. I'd love to get hold of the version Paul 'panastasia' has as the only criticism I have of mine is that the photographic reproduction is quite poor quality.

Crispin

There are many. The recent Martin Parr/Gerry Badger history of photoboks (two volumes) is a great favorite of mine, as is its conceptual neighbor the book of 100 books.

Most people get one of the standard texts, like Newhall. Ehhh

I have "The New History of Photography" by Michel Frizot and it is quite comprehensive. I love it.

Thanks for your replies, they have been most helpful. I hope you all may find the book in question helpful too!

Thanks again, Marcus

Another excellent book on 19th century photography:

The Origins of American Photography, From Daguerreotype to Dry-Plate, 1839-1885, by Keith F. Davis (HFF/NAMA, 2007).