PhotoHistorica: Landmarks in Photography

The large format PhotoHistorica: Landmarks in Photography consists of a selection of photographs taken from the collection of the Royal Photographic Society from its inception in 1853 through the late twentieth century.  The overview is not chronological but instead is broken down into several broad and predictable sections - Portrait, Social Documentary, Domestic, Nature & Science, Art, Nudes & Fashion, Landscape & Architecture, and Travel.  These are accompanied by a somewhat gushing text by Pam Roberts as well as a Preface by Paul McCartney whose late wife Linda had exhibited at the Society prior to her death.

The book is not intended as a scholarly work in any sense.  It is rather one of those volumes often referred to as "coffee table" books that go on sale every year during the holiday period.  Nevertheless, it is an interesting review of the Society's holdings if only because it provides some indication of what were considered suitable subjects for photographic study over the years and which prints were considered worth collecting.  To a large extent, the selection reflects the tastes of John Dudley Johnston who was Honorary Curator from 1924 to 1955 and who was responsible for moving the focus of the collection from works that represented technical advances in the medium to those that were included for their pictorial worth.  As the collection already consisted of over a quarter million photographs by the turn of the millennium, only a relative handful are included here.  Many more can be seen on the RPS website.

There are no real surprises in the book.  All the most famous British photographers are represented here as well as those foreigners, such as Alfred Stieglitz, who were once associated with the Society.  Still, many of the photos displayed are lesser known works, and readers are thus frequently provided an opportunity to familiarize themselves with images they may never before have encountered.  In the "Nudes & Fashion" section, for example, there are several obscure Pictorialist studies.  On one page, there is an undated nude entitled "Rebecca" by H.A. von Behr that employs shallow depth of field and an unusual overhead lighting source while on the following page there is a photo of the dancer Rose Cohen taken from behind by Paul Haviland circa 1909-1910 that focuses on the complex brocade pattern of her dress.

While the quality of the reproductions is generally excellent, too much attention has been paid to the layout of the book at the expense of the photos themselves.  Very often, photos one would have liked to have studied more closely have been placed at the top of a page where they won't be in the way of the text and have accordingly been so reduced in size that it is difficult to make out any detail within them.  One point that is not addressed is whether any the photos shown have been cropped to fit their allotted space.  Also, when one sees so many black & white photos with such distinctive tints, one cannot help but wonder how accurately the originals' colors have been replicated.

The biggest drawback to the book is any detailed analysis of the photographic processes used to create the photos.  Many of these have fallen out of use and are now referred to as "alternative" processes.  Though a primer in the use of these methods would admittedly have been beyond the scope of this book, they could have been described in greater detail and a bibliography offered to those who wished to explore them in their own work.

In the end, this is an enjoyable book to browse and it does help give the reader a sense of photography's accomplishments over the years; but it is simply not substantive enough to be truly valuable to students of the medium's history.