A Little History of Photography

A Little History of Photography
Category: History & References in Photography
Author: Walter Benjamin
Publisher: Walther König, Köln
Publication Date: 2025
Print Length: 48 pages
Language: English
Price: paid paid paid

Walter Benjamin's A Little History of Photography offers a fascinating glimpse into the early development of photography and its broader implications, making it as relevant today as when it was first published in 1931. In this essay, Benjamin—a philosopher and cultural critic—demonstrates remarkable foresight about the transformative power of photography. His declaration that "the illiterate of the future ... will not be the man who cannot read the alphabet, but the one who cannot take a photograph" underscores his belief that the medium would become essential to modern communication and culture.

Beginning with the pioneering experiments of Louis Daguerre and Nicéphore Niépce, Benjamin traces photography's evolution through to the work of August Sander and Germaine Krull. But his essay goes beyond a simple history of the medium, exploring its artistic, societal, and political potential. In doing so, Benjamin anticipates his later and more famous work, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, where he would further explore the concept of “reproducibility” and its implications for art in the modern age.

A Little History of Photography remains a seminal text for understanding photography as more than just a technical innovation—it’s a tool for analyzing art, culture, and politics. Benjamin’s insights gave early credibility to the medium and its practitioners, shaping the critical frameworks that are still used today. This essay is a must-read for anyone interested in the philosophical and historical dimensions of photography.

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2012 — National Gallery London

History of Photography Books: Seduced by Art: Photography Past and Present

Today's photography is part of our own cultural moment, but it also arises from artistic traditions of the past. Seduced by Art looks at the effects of art and its history on the creation of photographs, tracing continuities in aims, visual style, and technical experimentation. This sumptuous book shows how photographers such as Julia Margaret Cameron sought to elevate the status of their work by referencing Old Masters. Similarly, contemporary practitioners look to their photographic predecesso

100 Ideas that Changed Photography

2012 — Laurence King Publishers

History of Photography Books: 100 Ideas that Changed Photography

This compelling book chronicles the most influential ideas that have shaped photography from the invention of the daguerreotype in the early 19th century up to the digital revolution and beyond. Entertaining and intelligent, it provides a fascinating resource to dip into. Arranged in a broadly chronological order to show the development of photography, the ideas that comprise the book include innovative concepts, cultural and social incidents, technologies, and movements. Each idea is presented

Instant: The Story of Polaroid

2012 — Princeton Architectural Press

History of Photography Books: Instant: The Story of Polaroid

"Instant photography at the push of a button!" During the 1960s and '70s, Polaroid was the coolest technology company on earth. Like Apple, it was an innovation machine that cranked out one must-have product after another. Led by its own visionary genius founder, Edwin Land, Polaroid grew from a 1937 garage start-up into a billion-dollar pop-culture phenomenon. Instant tells the remarkable tale of Land's one-of-a-kind invention-from Polaroid's first instant camera to hit the market in 1948, to i

Photography: History and Theory

2012 — Taylor & Francis

History of Photography Books: Photography: History and Theory

From its inception in the nineteenth century, photography has instigated a series of theoretical debates. In this new text, Jae Emerling therefore argues that the most insightful way to approach the histories of photography is to address simultaneously the key events of photographic history alongside the theoretical discourse that accompanied them. While the nineteenth century is discussed, the central focus of the text is on modern and contemporary photographic theory. Particular attention i

The Camera as Historian: Amateur Photographers and Historical Imagination, 1885-1918

2012 — Duke University Press Books

History of Photography Books: The Camera as Historian: Amateur Photographers and Historical Imagination, 1885-1918

In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth, hundreds of amateur photographers took part in the photographic survey movement in England. They sought to record the material remains of the English past so that it might be preserved for future generations. In The Camera as Historian, the groundbreaking historical and visual anthropologist Elizabeth Edwards works with an archive of nearly 55,000 photographs taken by 1,000 photographers, mostly unknown until now. She approaches the survey move
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