History of Photography Fifth Edition

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Reference
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent read
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent read
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: The first time I read this book, I was very surprised...
Review: 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.