Decorah readers interested in photography, design and cultural history can now pick up a new book by Luther College professor Aaron Lurth. Small Luxuries: Film Cameras, a 128-page illustrated hardcover, is available through the Luther Book Shop and can also be purchased online.
Lurth published the book Aug. 4 through the Quarto Group. Decorah Today reported its local availability on Aug. 23, 2026, and updated the report Aug. 24.
A cultural history of cameras
Small Luxuries examines how cameras became part of culture and everyday life. The book is aimed at readers interested in photography, graphic design and cultural history rather than shoppers looking for equipment advice.
It is not a conventional camera guide, meaning readers seeking product recommendations or detailed technical specifications will find a different kind of book. Instead, Lurth traces the connections among camera design, technological development and American culture.
The book considers the influence of major world events, large manufacturers, notable camera models and important figures in photography. It also explores why some cameras gained cultural significance and how companies developed their products.
The coffee-table-style volume combines 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 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 shown.
When camera history meets political history
One of the book’s central stories concerns 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 show how camera history can involve political decisions, corporate actions and individual lives. The book places manufacturing, innovation and industrial design alongside choices made during a period of crisis.
Lurth’s Luther College background
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. With Small Luxuries: Film Cameras, he applies that visual storytelling experience to the cameras, companies and people that shaped how images are recorded and understood.