A new book by Luther College professor Aaron Lurth is now available to readers in Decorah. Small Luxuries: Film Cameras, a 128-page illustrated hardcover, can be purchased at the Luther Book Shop and online.
Published Aug. 4 by the Quarto Group, the book was locally available as of Aug. 23, according to the report updated Aug. 24. It is intended for readers interested in photography, graphic design and cultural history—not only shoppers seeking advice on which camera to buy.
A cultural history, not a buying guide
Lurth’s book focuses less on product recommendations and technical specifications than on the relationship between camera design, technological development and American culture. It examines how cameras became part of everyday life and why particular models gained broader cultural significance.
The volume considers the influence of major world events, large manufacturers, notable camera models and important figures in photography. It also explores how companies developed their products and how innovation and industrial design shaped the way images were recorded and understood.
Designed in a coffee-table style, Small Luxuries brings together photographs, illustrations, vintage advertisements, newspaper clippings and other visual material. Lurth sourced and photographed about one-third of the images himself. Among the cameras featured are models he owns or was able to access, including a 1909 Kodak No. 3A Folding Brownie, described in the report as one of the oldest cameras in the book.
Camera history and the Leica Freedom Train
One section examines the history of Leica, the German camera company, during the rise of Nazi Germany. According to the report, Leica owner Ernst Leitz II helped approximately 300 Jewish people leave Germany during the 1930s.
Leitz assigned those people to offices in France, Great Britain, Hong Kong and the United States while presenting the arrangements as Leica employment. The effort later became known as the Leica Freedom Train.
Lurth uses that episode to demonstrate how camera history can also become political and human history. The book places manufacturing and photography alongside corporate decisions and individual choices made during a period of crisis.
Lurth’s Luther College connection
Lurth earned a bachelor’s degree in art from Luther College in 2008 and a Master of Fine Arts degree in photography and graphic design from the University of Iowa in 2012. He later returned to Luther as a professor of art and visual communication and serves as director of the college’s visual communication program.
His photography has appeared in projects connected with National Geographic, ABC, NBC, MTV.com, Time, the Des Moines Register, General Electric, CNET.com, the Red Cross and The Iowa Review. His films have screened at more than 100 festivals worldwide and received several awards, including the Iowa Motion Picture Association’s Best Documentary film.
In 2022, two of Lurth’s photographs entered the permanent collection of the Figge Art Museum in Davenport. His new book extends that visual storytelling background into a study of the cameras, companies and people that influenced photography.
Small Luxuries: Film Cameras is available locally at the Luther Book Shop in Decorah and online.