Flashes of Brilliance by Anika Burgess

Anika Burgess takes readers through the first seven decades of photographic history in her well written and extensively illustrated book Flashes of Brilliance: The Genius of Early Photography and How it Transformed Art, Science, and History from W.W. Norton. In addition to covering the usual founders of photography such as Daguerre and Fox Talbot, she presents us early underwater and astro- photography as well as the dangers of early flash photography in the studios and sewers of Paris.  The coverage of the rise of popular amateur photography with the introduction of dry plates, smaller cameras and eventually roll film is tied into the rise of street and spy photography.  My favorite chapter brought X-rays together with photography of the spirit, or science and the mystical worlds. I found the book flowed well and kept me engaged, although the reproductions of photographs throughout the text pages were dull and it is hard to see the details she calls out.  If you are interested in some of the more esoteric paths of early photography this book is for you.