A new book from Luther College professor Aaron Lurth invites readers to see film cameras as more than mechanical objects. Small Luxuries: Film Cameras explores the designs, companies and technologies behind photography while tracing their connections to American culture, major historical events and the lives 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 rather than a buying guide
The book introduces readers to basic camera mechanics, but its main focus is historical and cultural. Lurth examines major manufacturers, notable models and influential figures instead of concentrating on detailed equipment specifications or shopping advice.
Presented in a coffee-table format, Small Luxuries: Film Cameras combines 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.
One of the oldest cameras he photographed was a 1909 Kodak No. 3A Folding Brownie. His research and firsthand photography give readers interested in photography, graphic design and cultural history a closer look at how camera companies developed and why certain products became significant.
When camera history intersects with world events
One of the book’s central stories involves Leica, the German camera company. During the 1930s, Leica owner Ernst Leitz II helped approximately 300 Jewish people leave Nazi Germany. He assigned 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 show how the history of cameras can intersect with world events and the experiences of people affected by them—not only with technological innovation or industrial design.
Lurth’s visual storytelling 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.
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.