Stories from the Camera: Reflections on the Photograph

At first glance Stories from the Camera appears to be a beautiful coffee table book: large format, glossy pages, like an art book we expect it to be. But the average reader, even art lover, would be hesitant to place this volume by editor M. M. Penhall on their coffee table. Even though this volume is a collection of photographs from an extensive collection of the University of New Mexico Art Museum, the photos are not what most art lovers would enjoy—these are historic photos spanning some hundred-and-seventy-five years, starting with daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes and other historic photographs from the birth of photographic art around eighteen-forty.

The collection goes up to mid-twentieth century, a few dating from later years. Following a long introduction, fourteen authors write a chapter each on various historic aspects of photography or focusing on a single photographer. Each chapter is more academic than an appealing reading with superscript numbers referring to notes and references following each chapter. The photos range in size but are generally small, nearly all black-and-white except for the later photos. Two extensive Appendices and list of references end this book written more for art historians and library collections than for coffee tables.