Books on history of photography...

[ljb0904]

The "strip malls" thread has been interesting reading and there's good viewpoints there. I'm woefully ignorant on the history of photography, and thought I'd ask the collective genius here for some recommended reading in regards to the history and movements of photography?

I'd appreciate it!

[Kirk Gittings]

Beaumont Newhall, History of Photography. It is very accessible as were his lectures. I studied with him in the early 70's. But it does not go past like 85 or something?

[Brian Ellis]

The best and most thorough book I know of, used as a text in many college History of Photography courses, is "A World History of Photography" by Naomi Rosenblum.

[tim atherton]

Not very many pictures, but not too heavy - Steve Edwards - A Very Short Introduction to Photography

And if you can get to see the Genius of Photography series, it does a pretty good job of this (there is also a book of the series not out in the US yet?)

[paulr]

The Rosenblum book might still be the standard textbook these days, but I don't have it.

The Newhall book is more of a "history of the history of photography" ... it's a pretty narrow look at the medium, and runs out of gas before it gets to anything at all contemporary. Everything after the 1950s is compressed into just a handful of pages.

I'm wondering if anything more interesting than Rosenblum has come along in the last few years.

[Andy K]

'The Genius Of Photography, How photography has changed our lives' by Gerry Badger. ISBN 978 184400 363 1

The book accompanies the BBC series of the same name and is an excellent read.

[Doug Howk]

The New History of Photography by Michel Frizot. Another, though not in a linear history perspective, is The Oxford Companion to the Photograph. Both are excellent books.

[Martin Miller]

For a pretty good survey of the contemporary scene, I try Charlotte Cotton's The Photograph as Contemporary Art. Also, Jonathan Green's A Critical History of American Photography is excellent over the 1945-1985 period. I think this book was reprinted in recent years.

[Jim Jones]

An old, but useful, classic is Photography and the American Scene by Robert Taft. It was written in 1938 and covers only the first fifty years of Photography. Dover printed it for a long time, and it is available used from online booksellers.

[Greg Lockrey]

The Blue and Gray in Black and White a history of Civil War photography. By Bob Zeller. It also goes into the business side of those photographers.