When Joseph Nicéphore Niépce pointed a camera out of his workroom around 1826, he could hardly have foreseen what he was setting in motion. His grainy view across the rooftops of Le Gras is considered the oldest surviving photograph. Two hundred years later, billions of images are made around the world every day, and photography has become so commonplace that we rarely pause to consider its influence.
This is Photography: The First 200 Years marks photography’s bicentenary with an expansive look back. It covers not only famous photographers and iconic images, but also the cameras, technical inventions, exhibitions, and publications that have changed the way we see.
A Year-by-Year History
The book is organized chronologically. Almost every year is represented by a photograph, object, or development that reveals something about the direction the medium was taking at that time. Short accompanying texts place these selections in their historical, technical, or social context.
This makes the book more than a collection of highlights. After all, the history of photography is not shaped solely by photographers who developed a distinctive visual language. Just as important were the inventors who shortened exposure times, the manufacturers who made cameras more accessible, and the scientists who used photography to reveal what the human eye could not see.
Eadweard Muybridge’s motion studies appear alongside X-ray and DNA images that transformed our understanding of the human body. Robert Frank’s documentary work is presented alongside Cindy Sherman’s constructed self-portraits. Exhibitions and photobooks are also treated as moments when new ideas about photography reached a wider audience.
Famous Names and Unexpected Images
This is Photography features many photographers who are now part of the established canon. Man Ray, Edward Steichen, Sebastião Salgado, and Andreas Gursky share its pages with artists such as Hannah Höch, Barbara Kruger, and Zanele Muholi.
Their work shows how broad photography has become over two hundred years. The medium can document, investigate, persuade, seduce, and mislead. A photograph can serve as evidence, a work of art, a family memory, or a political weapon—and sometimes perform several of those functions at once.
Alongside familiar images, the book deliberately includes less obvious selections. As a result, its history is not told exclusively through the usual European and American protagonists. Photography developed around the world and was repeatedly adapted to different cultures, political circumstances, and methods of distribution.
Longer thematic essays between the chronological chapters add depth by examining important genres and developments in greater detail. The book also includes excerpts from writings by photographers and thinkers who have reflected on the meaning and reliability of the photographic image.
Photography as a Way of Thinking
The central theme of This is Photography is that photography has not only recorded the world, but has also changed how we see it. From the earliest experiments with light-sensitive materials, the medium grew into an essential part of art, science, journalism, and everyday life.
The book traces that development through more than famous photographs alone. Cameras, technical breakthroughs, exhibitions, and influential publications all have a place. The result is a history in which photography continually acquires new uses and meanings.
An estimated 1.9 trillion photographs are now made worldwide each year. Images have therefore become a major part of our culture and communication. That makes it especially worthwhile to look back at the moments, people, and inventions that shaped photography over the course of two centuries.
Nathalie Herschdorfer
The book was edited by Nathalie Herschdorfer, a curator, photography historian, and director of Photo Elysée in Lausanne. Her previous publications include books on Deborah Turbeville and Man Ray.
This is Photography: The First 200 Years – Nathalie Herschdorfer
Pages: 320
Format: hardcover
Language: English
Price: €46.40
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
ISBN: 9780500030363
