A new book by Luther College professor Aaron Lurth is giving Decorah readers a way to see film cameras as cultural artifacts rather than simply mechanical tools. Small Luxuries: Film Cameras, a 128-page illustrated hardcover, traces the connections among camera design, technological change, American culture and major events around the world.
Lurth, a visual communication professor and director of Luther’s visual communication program, published the book Aug. 4 through the Quarto Group. Residents can purchase it through the Luther Book Shop or online, according to Luther College News.
A visual history of cameras and culture
The book includes explanations of basic camera mechanics, but it is not intended as an equipment-shopping guide or a source of detailed product specifications. Instead, Lurth examines major manufacturers, notable models and influential people to explain how photographic products acquired cultural significance.
The coffee-table-style volume brings together photographs, illustrations, vintage advertisements, newspaper clippings and other visual materials. About one-third of the images were sourced and photographed by Lurth, using cameras he owns or was able to access.
Among the oldest cameras he photographed was a 1909 Kodak No. 3A Folding Brownie. The combination of historical research and firsthand photography offers readers interested in photography, graphic design and cultural history a closer look at how camera companies developed and why particular models mattered.
The political history behind a camera company
One of the book’s central stories involves Leica, the German camera company. During the 1930s, Leica owner Ernst Leitz II helped approximately 300 Jewish people escape Nazi Germany by assigning them to offices in France, Great Britain, Hong Kong and the United States under the appearance of Leica employment.
That effort later became known as the Leica Freedom Train. Lurth uses the episode to show that camera history encompasses political events and the experiences of people affected by them, as well as innovation, industrial design and manufacturing.
Lurth’s work in visual storytelling
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.
His photography has appeared in projects associated 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. With Small Luxuries: Film Cameras, the Luther professor extends that visual storytelling work into a history of the cameras, companies and people that helped shape how the world records and understands images.