Library
Here are some books I’ve used for research. I haven’t included periodicals, although they are also an excellent source in all photography subjects. Many books—especially the older ones—are available online for free and I normally included the link. As for print editions, many very interesting books aren’t hard to find on secondhand book websites.
To organize the list, I simply sorted them by the date of the first edition, from the most recent to the oldest. Even if the copy I’m researching is from a later edition, I thought it best to list the first edition to place the content in its historical context. Even in cases of later editions translated into other languages, the date of the original edition is what counts.
Anyway, it is not a huge collection, so if you’re interested in the subject, I suggest taking a general look through them—you might find an interesting suggestion for a new addition to your own library.
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La Lumière | Bernard Maitte
Excellent book on evolution of concepts about light throughout history. All back and forth movements about its corpuscular or wave nature are approached within the cultural context of each moment and the philosophical theological preferences of each scientist. At the end it shows how much science really can not have as purpose an investigation into…
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Histoire de la Découverte de la Photographie | Georges Potonniée
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. END-OF-ARTICLE-CHECK
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Photographic lenses in 19th century Germany and Austria | Corrado D’Agostini
19th century German and Austrin optics. Detailed photos, documents, catalogs and an excellent bibliography. A must have by the collector and scholar of the subject
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Vernaculaires | Clément Chéroux
The book discusses vernacular photography as photography that was not intended as a work of art. It includes amateur photography by ordinary people, but also professional photography with a utilitarian purpose.
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Photographic Lenses of the 1800’s in France | Corrado d’Agostini
Excellent book plenty of information about the optical industry in France in the 19th century. It has large and clear photos very helpful in the identification old lenses. Lots of information about manufacturers and leading industry’s opticians. Corrado D’Agostini is professor of clinical psychology at the University of Florence and also collects and studies photographic…
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La vie d’Artiste au XIXe siècle | Anne Martin-Fugier
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…
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Zeiss Compendium East & West: 1940-1972 | Charles M. Barringer e Marc James Small
Zeiss Ikon was a photographic camera producer, result of a merge of three other important makers. It had a difficult to overestimate role in the history of photography. This book is about its last decades and analyses how its incredibly diversified offer, in concepts and formats, ended up being unbearable and in conflict with profitability. It…
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A History of Photography | George Eastman House
It’s a good reference book to have and flick through, but don’t expect any new points of view or depth on any topic, as the scope is from 1939 to the 1990s. Although small in size, with 760 pages, it is very well printed and very rich in the images chosen to illustrate it.
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A new history of photography | Michel Frizot
Excellent history of photography. Organised by the French historian Michel Frizot, the book features in its almost 800 pages the contribution of many other authors. It is, in fact, a compilation of 41 independent essays depicting a panorama about the relation of image making and society transformations since the appearance of the first photographic processes….
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The Science of Art | Martin Kemp
An excellent inventory of the techniques and tools used to understand and produce naturalistic images. It starts with linear perspective and goes up to the invention of photography and also a discussion of color.
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Les Multiples Inventions de la Photographie
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…
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A history of the photographic lens | Rufolf Kingslake
An essential book and very pleasant reading. It is a good balance between technical aspects of lens construction, the challenges posed by the problems involved, and the people, companies and all those who left their mark in history of image making. END-OF-ARTICLE-CHECK
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Photography, a concise history | Ian Jeffrey
Being a relatively small book, 245 pages, it couldn’t really try to be a comprehensive approach to the vast subject that it addresses. From there the name “a concise history”. But what is interesting in it is that once admitted that condition, there is a insightful history of ideas in photography with some very well…
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Photography essays and images | Beaumont Newhall
A book with a collection of founding texts from the history of photography. It seems that everything that was important is inside.
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Albumen and Salted Paper Book | James M. Reilly
This is a book that covers both the historical and practical aspects for anyone who wants to try printing using one of these two processes, albumen or salted paper. It is very detailed and well written.
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The Gum Bichromate Book | David Scopick
A very practical book with good advice on the technique of Gum Bichromate. From paper preparation to archiving. Some more in-depth considerations on sensitometry and trichromia using the process complete a book that can be a guide for the beginner and also a roadmap for anyone who wants to explore the process further.
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Zeiss Ikon Cameras 1926-39 | D. B. Tubbs
The book first deals with the mergers that originated the giant Zeiss Ikon and then analyzes company’s extensive portfolio until the beginning of World War II. It is interesting on commenting the strategy, the mistakes and successes of what was arguably the most innovative camera manufacturer in the first half of the twentieth century. From…
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Photographie and société | Gisele Freund
A book rich in information about lives and periods in the history of photography. The analysis is poor and dated. It assumes that all human motivations, including their relationship with photography, are economic and aimed at social ascension.
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Art and Photography | Aaron Scharf
How photography and painting divided the universe of images is the subject of this book. It’s common to find references to inflammatory positions that saw photography as a great threat to the arts. But this book shows us another side: how many renowned artists, with greater or lesser awareness, have used photography, or a photographic gaze, in their productions.
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A Concise History of Photography | Helmut Gernsheim
This is a classic. Published in 1965, 1971, and 1986—I’m not sure if there were any other editions. It takes two approaches—one technical and the other artistic—and uses them to trace the history of the medium from its invention through the postwar period.
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Art and Illusion | Ernst Hans Gombrich
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…
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The Family of Man | Edward Steichen
The book is the catalog of what was probably the most influential photography exhibition in history. The Family of Man represents the pinnacle of humanist photography.
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The negative | Anselm Adams
This is a classic and very useful work from Anselm Adams (1902 – 1984), north american photographer, in which he explains his Zone System. It is a working procedure that starts by evaluating the film exposure considering: END-OF-ARTICLE-CHECK
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Professional Portrait Lightings | Charles Abel
A compendium of portraits taken in the 1940s in the United States with all the details of light, camera, lens and even film used.
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History of Photography | Josef Maria Eder
Book published in 1905 is an essential source for studying the History of Photography seeing it inserted and as a continuation of the studies on light, photo-sensitive reactions and formation of images through lenses. Phenomena observed and studied since ancient Greece and deepened particularly after the Renaissance. But 700 of its 900 pages are devoted…
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Cassell’s Cyclopedia of Photography
This is a 1911 publication and is arranged in alphabetical order as in a dictionary. No subject is explored in depth but it is very useful for researching terms related to photography. Chemical reagents, photography genres, optics, cameras, all kinds of accessories, processes, etc. There are 636 pages especially useful for those studying the history…
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Complete Self-Instructing Library of Practical Photography | Schriever J. B.
10-volume collection that really covers a wide variety of photography topics.
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Tom Wedgwood | Richard Buckley Litchfield
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…
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Photographic Lenses – How to choose and how to use | John A. Hodges
Book published in 1894. Divided into three sections: We can perceive there a very pragmatic approach, but it does not loosen with scientific accuracy. It is interesting for those who like studying history of image making and also for those considering or already using lenses from the 19th century. That is becoming very attractive if…
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Ausführliches Handbuch der Photographie 1893 | Josef Maria Eder
Book on photographic optics from the beginning of photography to the first anastigmatic lenses.
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The optics of Photography and Photographic Lenses | J. Traill Taylor
Very good book about photographic lenses. Published in 1904, third edition, introduces the nature of light and goes directly to the issue of a photographic image. Explains the problems of aberration, angle of view, aperture and focus among other key concepts. It is a pragmatic text and relates designs with field of application like landscapes…
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Traité elementaire de l’objectif photographique | Étienne Wallon
A very complete treatise on photographic lenses. It starts with refraction and follows with formulas for spherical lenses, types of aberration, ways of correcting them and in the most practical part it cites the main families of lenses, their manufacturers, and goes down to the surface radii for some examples chosen. Great reference. Digitized by…
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The Evolution of Photography | John Werge
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…
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The Studios of Europe | H. Baden Pritchard
This book covers the practice of professional portrait photography in leading studios across Europe. It was published in 1882 and therefore refers to the period when carte cabinets were consolidated as the preferred format in relation to the carte de visita format that had its peak in the 60s and 70s. In addition to the…
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La vérité sur l’invention de la photographie – Nicéphore Nièpce | Victor Fouque
Nicéphore Nièpce biography published in 1867 written by Victor Fouque. Josef Maria Eder cites this book as the best source about life and work of the man who produced the very first photographic image in history. Available for download at Google Books END-OF-ARTICLE-CHECK
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Traité d’Optique Photographique | Désiré von Monckhoven
Published in 1866 this treatise is a great introduction to the optics of the first decades of photography. There is a theoretical part about light behavior and the basics about lenses, but there is also a lot of practical information organizing families and progresses made in photographic lenses manufacturing. It can be found online at…
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Étude sur la vie et les travaux scientifiques de Charles Chevalier | Arthur Chevalier
For generations, Chevalier family was in the scientific business producing specially optical instruments since 1765. Charles Chevalier (1804-1859) designed the first lenses that equipped photographic cameras, produced by Alphonse Gireaux, intended for daguerreotypes. This book was written by his son, Arthur Chevalier, and published in 1862. On top of the biography, it features several documents and…
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Daguerréotypie | J. Thierry
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. END-OF-ARTICLE-CHECK
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The Pencil of Nature | Fox Talbot
A milestone in the history of photography, this book published in 1844 shows 24 calotypes accompanied by comments from their inventor Fox Talbot.
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Historique de la Découverte Improprement Nommée Daguerréotipe | Isidore Niépce
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…
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Daguerréotype | many authors
Daguerréotype | many authors Contemporary print of the main texts that marked the announcement of the Daguerreotype in 1839. It contains speeches delivered in the Chamber of Deputies by the Minister of Interior by François Arago by Gay Lussac, the procedure as described by Daguerre, also contains the description of Heliography by Nicéphore Niépce, some…
