Course Description
“The course gave me a different perspective on early photography and the development of the photobook.” — 2017 student This course will explore the evolution of the photographically-illustrated book from the first commercially available example (William Henry Fox Talbot’s The Pencil of Nature) to the present day. We will focus on the technical developments in the production of photographically-illustrated books, covering both photographic processes themselves and—in greater depth—the developments in photomechanical printing that have driven the historical expansion of the field. Students will look at key examples, exploring the books themselves and their surviving archival evidence for the technical, commercial, aesthetic, and cultural decisions that came together to make the production of key photographic books possible. Genres and trends in photographic books will be discussed, and the course will include a full-day field trip to major collections in Washington DC, especially the Library of Congress. We will also examine recent trends in the historiography, collecting, and trade in photographic books.The course assumes a basic familiarity with the history of photographic technology and photography in general, as well as a basic understanding of photomechanical printing processes. In their personal statements, applicants should indicate their level of familiarity in each of these areas.
The tuition for this course is $1,495 owing to the expenses associated with the scheduled field trip. Click here to view the course description for the virtual version of this course.Faculty
Richard Ovenden
Richard Ovenden is Bodley’s Librarian at the University of Oxford, the senior executive officer of the Bodleian Libraries, a position he has held since 2014. His previous positions include Deputy …
Advance Reading List
Preliminary Advices
The asterisked items in the lists below are the most important to have read prior to class. Some of these books may be difficult to locate: we recommend utilizing inter-library loan when possible.
History of Photography (General)
* Benson, Richard. The Printed Picture. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2008. Also see the videos at: http://www.benson.readandnote.com.
* Coe, Brian and Mark Haworth-Booth. A Guide to Early Photographic Processes. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983.
Frizot, Michel, ed. A New History of Photography. Koln: Konemann, 1998.
Hambourg, Maria Morris, et al. The Waking Dream: Photography’s First Century. Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993.
Lebeck, Robert and Bodo von Dewitz. Kiosk: A History of Photojournalism. Gottingen: Steidl, 2001.
Lemagny, Jean-Claud and André Rouillé, eds. A History of Photography: Social and Cultural Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
McKitterick, David. Old Books, New Technologies: The Representation, Conservation, and Transformation of Books since 1700. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
Albums
Bann, Stephen, ed. Art and the Early Photographic Album. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 2011.
Batchen, Geoff. Photography’s Objects. Albequerque, NM: University of New Mexico Art Museum, 1997.
* Curtis, Verna Posever. Photographic Memory: The Album in the Age of Photography. New York: Aperture, 2011.
Di Bello, Patrizia. Women’s Albums and Photography in Victorian England: Ladies, Mothers and Flirts. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007.
Siegel, Elizabeth. Playing with Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2010.
Photobooks: Bibliographies
Fernández, Horacio. The Latin American Photobook. New York: Aperture, 2011.
Fernández, Horacio, ed. Fotos & Libros: España 1905–1977. Madrid: Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofia & Acción Cultural Española, 2014.
Gernsheim, Helmut. Incunabula of British Photographic Literature, 1839–1875. London: Scolar Press, 1984.
Gierstenberg, Fritz and Rik Suermondt, eds. The Dutch Photobook: A Thematic Selection from 1945 Onwards. New York, Aperture, 2012.
* Goldschmidt, Lucien and Weston J. Naef. The Truthful Lens: A Survey of the Photographically Illustrated Book, 1844–1914. New York: The Grolier Club, 1980.
Kaneko, Ryuichi and Ivan Vartanian. Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and ‘70s. New York: Aperture, 2009.
* Parr, Martin and Gerry Badger. The Photobook: A History. London: Phaidon, 2005–14. Three volumes; see especially Volume I.
Parr, Martin and Wassink Lundgren. The Chinese Photobook: From the 1900s to the Present. New York: Aperture, 2015.
Ritchen, Fred and Carol Naggar, eds. Magnum Photobook: The Catalogue Raisonné. London: Phaidon, 2016.
* Roth, Andrew. The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century. New York: PPP Editions, 2001.
Roth, Andrew, ed. The Open Book: A History of the Photographic Book from 1878 to the Present. Goteborg: The Hasselblad Center, 2004.
White, Mus. From the Mundane to the Magical: Photographically Illustrated Children’s Books, 1854–1945 and Beyond. Los Angeles, CA: Dawson’s Book Shop, 1999.
Photobooks: Studies
Armstrong, Carol. Scenes in a Library: Reading the Photograph in the Book, 1843–1875. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998.
Di Bello, Patrizia, Colette Wilson, and Shamoon Zamir, eds. The Photobook: From Talbot to Ruscha and Beyond. London: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd, 2012.
* Forster, Sheila J., Manfred Heiting, and Rachel Stuhlman. Imagining Paradise: The Richard and Ronay Menschel Library at George Eastman House, Rochester. Rochester, NY: George Eastman House, 2007.
Newhall, Beaumont. Photography and the Book. Boston: Boston Public Library, 1983.
* Szarkowski, John. Photography Until Now. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1989 (paperback edition, 1992). Read “Photographs in Ink,” pp. 177–248.
Specialist Studies
Greenough, Sarah, ed. Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans. Washington, DC and London: National Gallery of Art in Association with Steidl, 2009.
Hilary Macartney and José Manuel Matilla, eds. Copied by the Sun: Talbotype Illustrations to The Annals of the Artists of Spain by Sir William Stirling Maxwell: Studies and Catalogue Raisonné. Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado and Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica, 2016.
Roberts, Pam, ed. Alfred Stieglitz: Camera Work: The Complete Photographs 1903–1917. Koln: Taschen, 2013.
Schaaf, Larry J. “Third Census of H. Fox Talbot’s ‘The Pencil of Nature.’” History of Photography 36:1 (February 2012): 99–120.
Course Evaluations
Course History
- 2022
Richard Ovenden teaches this course online (12 hours).
- 2021
Richard Ovenden teaches this course online (10 hours).
- 2017–
Richard Ovenden teaches this course in person.