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 a report updated Aug. 24. Its audience includes people interested in photography, graphic design and cultural history—not only readers seeking information about cameras.
A cultural history, not a camera-buying guide
Small Luxuries is not a conventional camera guide. It does not focus on product recommendations or detailed technical specifications. Instead, Lurth examines how camera design and technological development became intertwined with American culture and everyday life.
The book considers the influence of major world events, large manufacturers, notable camera models and important figures in photography. It also explores why particular cameras gained cultural significance and how companies developed their products.
Designed as a coffee-table-style volume, the book combines photographs, illustrations, vintage advertisements, newspaper clippings and other visual material. Lurth sourced and photographed about one-third of the images himself. Among the featured cameras 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 included.
When camera history becomes political history
One of the book’s central episodes 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 history to show how the story of cameras can also 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 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. With Small Luxuries: Film Cameras, he applies that visual storytelling background to the cameras, companies and people that shaped how images are recorded and understood. The book is available locally through the Luther Book Shop in Decorah and online.