A new book from Luther College professor Aaron Lurth gives Decorah readers a way to look at film cameras as cultural artifacts—not merely mechanical tools. Small Luxuries: Film Cameras is a 128-page illustrated hardcover available through the Luther Book Shop and online.
Lurth published the book Aug. 4 through the Quarto Group, according to the supplied report. He is a visual communication professor and director of Luther’s visual communication program. The book’s local availability gives readers interested in photography, design and history an opportunity to explore the subject through the Luther Book Shop.
A history of cameras, design and culture
Small Luxuries examines the connections among camera design, technological change, American culture and major events around the world. Although it explains basic camera mechanics, the book is not presented as an equipment-shopping guide or a source of detailed product specifications.
Instead, Lurth looks at major manufacturers, notable models and influential people to explain how photographic products gained cultural significance. The coffee-table-style volume 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.
That combination of historical research and firsthand photography lets the book consider not only how cameras worked, but also why particular models mattered and how camera companies developed. The result is aimed at readers interested in photography, graphic design and cultural history.
The political history behind Leica
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 escape 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 show how camera history can encompass political events and the experiences of people affected by them, alongside innovation, industrial design and manufacturing.
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.