The History of Photography: From 1839 to the Present Day [Hardcover]

Beaumont Newhall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1982

Since its first publication in 1937, this lucid and scholarly chronicle of the history of photography has been hailed as the classic work on the subject. No other book and no other author have managed to relate the aesthetic evolution of the art of photography to its technical innovations with such an absorbing combination of clarity, scholarship and enthusiasm. Through more than 300 works by such master photographers as William Henry Fox Talbot, Timothy O'Sullivan, Julia Margaret Cameron, Eugene Atget, Peter Henry Emerson, Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Man Ray, Edward Weston, Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Ansel Adams, Brassai, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Harry Callahan, Minor White, Robert Frank and Diane Arbus, author Beaumont Newhall presents a fascinating, comprehensive study of the significant trends and developments in the medium since the first photographs were made in 1839. New selections added to the fifth edition include photographs made in color, from hand-tinted daguerreotypes of 1850 to turn-of-the-century autochromes by Edward Steichen, to works by contemporary masters such as Eliot Porter, Ernst Haas, William Eggleston, Stephen Shore and Joel Meyerowitz.Beaumont Newhall (1908-1993) was an influential curator, art historian, writer and photographer. In 1935 he became the Librarian at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 1940, he became the first Director of MoMA's Photography Department. He served as Curator of the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House from 1948 to 1958, then as its Director from 1958 to 1971. While at the Eastman House, Newhall was responsible for amassing one of the greatest photographic collections in the world.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd; Revised edition (November 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0436305089
• ISBN-13: 978-0436305085
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,732,475 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Reference, June 3, 2004

By 

tootsdonovan (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The History of Photography: From 1839 to the Present (Paperback)

As a student, I was forced to buy this book during my 2 year tenure at photography school. It remains one of the most comprehensive, detailed and well written references on the history of photography. History books can be a little "dry" to read but this one is exceptionally well written and covers a vast amount of ground in an admirable fashion.

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent read, November 29, 2003

By 

Ajean Veasse (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The History of Photography: From 1839 to the Present (Paperback)

If you're even remotely interested in photography and its development, this book is a wonderful way to learn about it. It details the emergence of all the important photographic processes with just enough technical detail to be interesting and not so much as to be overwhelming. There are many pictures in it that provide examples and show how images changed over the years. It also includes the personal aspects of this history and how photography has affected our culture. The writing is smooth and easy to read. In short, I highly recommend it; you won't be disappointed.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The first time I read this book, I was very surprised..., August 31, 2003

By 

Georges Lagarde (Grenoble, France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The History of Photography: From 1839 to the Present (Paperback)

The many photos reproduced are interesting and sometime beautiful, but the first thing to do is to read the story, which covers the first hundred years of photography (1850 - 1950.)
The first time I read this book I was very surprised about the many different ways different peoples believed photography should be used and not used, how many different solutions were suggested and used to make artworks (or not) using a camera.
Many years later we are still influenced by their ideas and works without actually knowing them in most cases and the new possibilities that digital photography bring to us make some old questions very interesting ones.