"A picture is worth a thousand words” Photographers in the Fine Arts Department

by Daria Phair, Librarian

Many of us have captured life’s moments in photographs. Who gave us this wonderful invention? French scientist and inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (1765–1833) produced the earliest surviving photograph, View from the Window at Le Gras, in 1827, using a camera obscura and a process he called “heliography.” By 1837, Louis Daguerre (1787-1851) had discovered a technique for reproducing images that were fixed and didn’t fade. A photography boom ensued. To explore more of the history and people in this artistic field, check out what the Fine Arts Department has on famous photographers and techniques through the ages. Here are a dozen examples.

This gorgeous volume, created in collaboration with the George Eastman House, celebrates the development of cameras, their inventors, and the art of photography over two hundred years. There are more than 100 historic photos, ads, and drawings to complement the text.

Camera: A History of Photography from Daguerreotype to Digital by Todd Gustavson Book

Harry Benson (1929- ) has photographed famous people and events from the 1950s to the 2010s, including every president from Dwight Eisenhower to Donald Trump, Winston Churchill and Queen Elizabeth II, the Beatles and many other celebrities. He also captured such historic events as the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall, the Irish Republican Army hunger strikes, and 9/11.

Persons of Interest; Photographs That Defined an Era by Harry Benson Book