This is a fundamental book. It studies the question of verisimilitude between image and object and the means by which it is constructed. It studies the weight of conventions and the role of learning and mental operations that contribute too much to our assessment of the visual stimuli we receive. Vision is posited as cultural…
Book of 1847 combines a short history of the invention of photography with detailed instructions on how to proceed in obtaining the daguerreotype. Can be downloaded from this link.
The book focuses on chemical side of photography, there is not talk about lenses or cameras. The author, himself a photographer and colourist, was a teenager when daguerrotypes were spreading into UK and he mixes historical events with his personal experiences in a very nice manner. There is a useful chronological record with main facts…
Biography of Thomas Wedgwood with a chapter about his works to photography and also an appendices named “A Mythical Account of T. Wedgwood Photographic Work” in which the author dismisses theories about an early discovery of photography made by Wedgwood. It contains the report wrote by Humphrey Davy in 1802 summarizing the real outcome of…
Book published in 1854 devotes the first chapter to the chain of studies that led to the invention of photography. In the remainder of the book the author makes a thorough analysis of light theory, action, and light phenomena, especially photo-chemicals. Can be downloaded in this link.
Excellent book. Lots of information that transports you into the art market environment in the nineteenth century. Talks about who embraced the artistic career, which were the prospects, which were the learning venues, how art was shown, how the salons worked, what about the relationship with collectors, with models, between masters and novices, how women…
Traité de Photographie | N. P. Lerebours This is the fourth edition, June 1843, so soon after the release of the Daguerreotype process in 1839. It is really a manual for those who want to start in photography, covering topics from exposure time, plate size and optical considerations, up to the processing of the silvered…
Publication after a colloquium held in France in 1989 commemorating the 150 years of public disclosure of photography according to the Daguerre process. There are several texts referring to conferences of the following authors grouped by themes: PHILOSOPHY OF INVENTIONS Andreas HAUS A.D. COLEMAN Jerzy A. WOJCIECHOWSKI HISTORICAL ASPECTS Bernard MARBOT Sylvain MORAND Mike WEAVER…
Book by Isidore Niépce, Nicéphore Niépce’s son, accusing Louis Daguerre of having failed the contract he had signed with Nicéphore in 1829 by forcing Isidore to forgo the use of his family name for the invention that came to the public in 1839. Nicéphore died in 1833 and the book was published in 1841. It…
A good history of photography focusing on its discovery. The author begins by defining photography, talking about the camera obscura, mechanical means of reproduction of drawings and his major focus is in the first experiments of Wedgwood and then Niépce and Daguerre. Published in 1929. Can be downloaded here.
After a few years without showing up, I decided to visit the 54th edition of Bièvres super fair. It is a fair organized by the Photoclub Paris Val-de-Bièvre and the Commune de Bièvres. I think my first visit was in 2002 and then I went there 6 times being the last one in 2009. I was even…
At the height of film photography the color amateur picture was mostly 10 x 15 cm (4 x 5 inches) on matte or glossy paper. The B & W photo persisted with the most enthusiastic on papers from Kodak, Agfa, Ilford and a few other brands. Even professionals used basically the same processes with bigger sizes and more…