A new book by Luther College professor Aaron Lurth is now available to readers in Decorah. Small Luxuries: Film Cameras is a 128-page illustrated hardcover that examines photography equipment through the lenses of cultural history, technology, politics and personal experience.
The book can be purchased through the Luther Book Shop and online. Lurth, a visual communication professor and director of Luther’s visual communication program, published the book Aug. 4 through the Quarto Group.
Decorah Today reported the local availability Aug. 23, 2026, and updated the report Aug. 24. The book’s local release gives Decorah readers a new work connected to Luther College and the history of photography.
A cultural history rather than a buying guide
Small Luxuries is aimed at readers interested in photography, graphic design and cultural history. It does not function as a buying guide, meaning readers looking for equipment recommendations or detailed product specifications will find a different approach.
Instead, Lurth examines how camera design and technological development intersected with American culture. The book also considers the effects of major world events, the role of large manufacturers, notable camera models and influential figures.
Its central questions include why certain cameras became culturally important and how companies developed their products. The coffee-table-style book contains photographs, illustrations, vintage advertisements, newspaper clippings and other visual material. Lurth sourced and photographed about one-third of the images himself.
The cameras featured include models that Lurth owns or was able to access. One example is a 1909 Kodak No. 3A Folding Brownie, identified in the report as one of the oldest cameras in the book.
The Leica Freedom Train
One of the book’s central stories follows 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 Nazi Germany during the 1930s.
Leitz assigned those individuals 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 the episode to demonstrate how camera history is linked to political events and the lives of people affected by them. Manufacturing, innovation and industrial design appear alongside decisions made by companies and individuals during periods of crisis.
Lurth’s background 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, he applies that visual storytelling experience to the cameras, companies and people that shaped how the world records and understands images.