A new book from Luther College professor Aaron Lurth asks readers in Decorah and beyond to look at film cameras as cultural artifacts—not simply outdated technology. Small Luxuries: Film Cameras traces the development of cameras, the companies that made them and the people whose lives were connected to the photography industry.
Lurth published the 128-page hardcover Aug. 4 through the Quarto Group, according to Luther College News. The book is available to Decorah residents through the Luther Book Shop or online.
A visual history, not a buying guide
Lurth, a visual communication professor and director of Luther’s visual communication program, wrote the book for a broad audience. It introduces readers to basic camera mechanics, but its central purpose is to explore the historical and cultural importance of cameras rather than provide detailed equipment specifications or shopping advice.
The coffee-table-style book follows film-camera technology through major manufacturers, notable models and influential figures. Photographs, illustrations, vintage advertisements, newspaper clippings and other visual materials help tell the story across its 128 pages.
About one-third of the images were sourced and photographed by Lurth with cameras he owns or was able to access. One of the oldest cameras he photographed was a 1909 Kodak No. 3A Folding Brownie. That firsthand work, combined with his research, gives photography, graphic-design and cultural-history readers a closer look at how familiar camera companies developed and why their products mattered.
How Leica’s history became a rescue story
One of the book’s central episodes involves Leica, the German camera company. During the 1930s, Leica owner Ernst Leitz II helped approximately 300 Jewish people leave Nazi Germany by assigning them to offices in France, Great Britain, Hong Kong and the United States under the appearance of Leica employment.
The effort later became known as the Leica Freedom Train. Lurth uses the episode to demonstrate how the history of a camera company can intersect with world events and the lives of people affected by them—not only with technological innovation or industrial design.
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. His new book extends that work into a history of the cameras, companies and people that helped shape how the world records and understands images.