A new book from Luther College professor Aaron Lurth asks readers to look at film cameras differently—not simply as machines for taking pictures, but as objects shaped by design, politics, technology and personal experience.
Small Luxuries: Film Cameras is a 128-page illustrated hardcover published Aug. 4 through the Quarto Group. The book is available through the Luther Book Shop in Decorah and online, according to the supplied report.
A cultural history, not a buying guide
Lurth, a visual communication professor and director of Luther’s visual communication program, wrote the book for readers interested in photography, graphic design and cultural history. It does not serve as an equipment-shopping guide or a catalogue of product specifications. Instead, it examines the connections among camera design, American culture, technological development and major events around the world.
The book discusses major manufacturers, notable models and influential people to explain how photographic products gained significance beyond their practical function. Alongside questions about how cameras worked, Lurth considers why particular models mattered and how camera companies developed.
The coffee-table-style volume combines photographs, illustrations, vintage advertisements, newspaper clippings and other visual materials. Lurth sourced and photographed about one-third of the images himself. The cameras used for that work included models he owns or was able to access, among them a 1909 Kodak No. 3A Folding Brownie, identified as one of the oldest cameras featured in the book.
The Leica story at the center
One of the book’s central stories involves Leica, the German camera company, and an episode that links camera history to the rise of Nazi Germany.
During the 1930s, Leica owner Ernst Leitz II helped approximately 300 Jewish people escape Nazi Germany. According to the report, 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 story to demonstrate how the history of cameras can include political events and the experiences of people affected by them, as well as innovation, manufacturing and 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 applies that visual storytelling experience to the cameras, companies and people that helped shape how the world records and understands images.