A new book by Luther College professor Aaron Lurth asks readers to look at film cameras as more than mechanical objects. Small Luxuries: Film Cameras follows the designs, companies and technologies behind photography while examining their connections to American culture, major historical events and the lives of people influenced by images.
Lurth, a visual communication professor and director of Luther’s visual communication program, published the book Aug. 4 through the Quarto Group. The 128-page hardcover is available to Decorah residents through the Luther Book Shop or online, according to Luther College News.
A visual history, not a buying guide
The book offers an introduction to basic camera mechanics, but its central purpose is historical and cultural. Rather than concentrating on detailed equipment specifications or shopping advice, Lurth examines major manufacturers, notable models and influential figures.
Designed in a coffee-table format, Small Luxuries: Film Cameras 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. His research and firsthand photography offer readers interested in photography, graphic design and cultural history a closer look at how camera companies developed and why particular products became significant.
A camera company’s role during Nazi Germany
One of the book’s central stories concerns 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 that episode to demonstrate how camera history can intersect with world events and the experiences of people affected by them—not simply 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. 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.