"Photography-- the Definitive Visual History

[Jock Elliott]

My local Barnes and Noble had several copies of Tom Ang's "Photography-- the Definitive Visual History" at 50% off. It appears online at 50% off as well: Photography: The Definitive Visual History|Hardcover

Published by DK, this large format book begins with the camera obscura and goes right to the digital age, offering descriptions of technology, profiles of photographers, and, of course, lots and lots of photographs. It appears to be much more information rich than the average coffee table book.

I was given a gift card to B&N and decided to buy the book. So far, I am very glad I did.

Cheers, Jock

 

[dalethorn]

I wonder about the possibility that someone in the year 1300 (700 years ago) could have created a photographic negative on a linen cloth. I don't want to ask the wrong question, but my understanding is that photography didn't exist before the early 1800's, yet apparently this was done 700-plus years ago. I'm aware of the side issues and want to avoid those - I just wanted to see if it's reasonable that people could have created photographic images back then, and whether there are others besides the one well-known relic.