Subject Research Guides
Photography
Getting Started: Selected Reference Books
Below is a partial list of general reference works on photography. Our Reference Collection also contains more specific works to help you get started on your research.
The Photography Encyclopedia
Ref TR9 .M39 1999
New York : Schirmer Books, c1999A very basic, comprehensive overview of photography. Includes definitions of terms; brief biographies of photographers, inventors, and other major figures in the field; as well as information about photographic processes and the history of photography as art.
The Focal Encyclopedia of Photography, 3rd edition
Ref TR9 .F6 1993
Boston : Focal Press, c1993A thematic encyclopedia with a focus on the technical aspects of photography. Includes a timeline of major developments in the history of photography. Widely considered the classic reference source on the subject.
The Oxford Companion to the Photograph
Ref TR9 .O94 2005
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, c2005An extensively illustrated work containing more than 1,600 entries. Includes biographical sketches of hundreds of photographers and discussion of subjects ranging from technique and processes to recent scholarship on photography as an artistic and social practice. Also available online.
Macmillan Biographical Encyclopedia of Photographic Artists and Innovators
Ref TR139 .B767 1983
New York : Macmillan ; London : Collier Macmillan, c1983Encyclopedia with international scope and entries for approximately 2,000 nineteenth and twentieth-century fine art and commercial photographers, scientists, critics, teachers, and museum and gallery personnel. Provides biographical and directory data and information on publications and collections.
Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography
Ref TR9 .H25 2007
New York : Taylor & Francis Group, c2008A-Z reference with entries on individuals, equipment, techniques, processes, and formats; on artistic movements, aesthetics, and criticism; and on the various uses of photography. While not extensively illustrated, it does include bibliographic references for further reading on most topics covered.
Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography
Ref TR642 .E5 2005
New York : Routledge, 2006A-Z reference with entries on individuals, equipment, techniques, processes, and formats; on institutions, galleries, and collections; on artistic movements, aesthetics, and criticism; and on the various uses of photography. While not extensively illustrated, it does include bibliographic references for further reading on most topics covered.
Contemporary Photographers, 2nd edition
Ref TR139 .C663 1988
Chicago : St. James Press, 1988Biographical data, exhibitions, collections, and publications for hundreds of late 19th- and 20th-century photographers. Statements by each photographer and/or brief critical essays are provided for each entry.
The Grove Dictionary of Art
Ref N31.D5 1996
Signed entries with bibliographies on all aspects of art, including movements, media, and artists. This resource is also available online as part of Oxford Art Online.
Finding Books
The Gould Library has rich collections of books, journals, government documents, and other resources. You may access them via The Bridge, the online catalog. You may search Bridge by title, author, subject heading, or keyword.
Recommended Books: Histories
A World History of Photography
Naomi Rosenblum
CC Oversize Books TR15 .R67 1997
New York : Abbeville Press, 1997Photography: A Cultural History
Mary Warner Marien
CC Oversize Books TR15 .M273 2002
New York : Harry N. Abrams, 2002A New History of Photography
Michel Frizot, ed.
CC Oversize Books TR15 .N6813 1998
Köln : Könemann, c1998The History of Photography: From 1839 to the Present
Beaumont Newhall
CC Books TR15 .N47 1982
New York : Museum of Modern Art : Distributed by the New York Graphic Society Books ; Boston : Little, Brown, c1982
Recommended Books: Essays
Photography in Print: Writings from 1816 to the Present
Vicki Goldberg, ed.
CC Books TR185 .P49
New York : Simon and Schuster, c1981Photography in the Modern Era: European Documents and Critical Writings, 1913-1940
Christopher Phillips, ed.
CC Books TR185 .P5 1989
New York : Metropolitan Museum of Art : Aperture, c1989
Relevant Library of Congress Call Numbers
TR1 - TR225 Photography, general works
TR250 - TR265 Cameras
TR265 - TR267 Digital photography
TR287 - TR500 Photographic processing
TR510 - TR545 Color photography
TR550 - TR581 Studio and laboratory
TR590 - TR620 Lighting
TR624 - TR835 Applied photography (artistic, commercial, etc.)
TR845 - TR899 Cinematography
TR925 - TR1050 Photomechanical processes
Finding Journal Articles
You can use the library's online indexes and databases to locate journal and magazine articles. Please note that Carleton does not own every title indexed in the databases. Check the library's Journals List to see if we own the journal title, not journal article, you are looking for. If we don't own the journal, take advantage of our Interlibrary Loan Services.
Academic Search Premier
An excellent general database, good for locating articles geared toward a general audience.
Art Index/Art Index Retrospective
Indexes a wide array of international periodical literature back to 1929. Also indexes reproductions included in these periodicals.
ARTBibliographies Modern
Covers journal articles, books, essays, exhibition catalogs, PhD dissertations, and exhibition reviews on all forms of modern and contemporary art.
Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA)
Indexes (with some abstracts) publications about art from 1973-present, incorporating RAA (Repertoire d'Art et d'Archeologie, 1973-1989) and RILA (International Repertory of the Literature of Art,1975-1989). In English and French.
ProQuest Research Library
An excellent general database, good for locating articles geared toward a general audience.
Image Collections
For general art and image resources, please see our collection of image databases which includes ARTstor, AP Images, and the Carleton Image Collection. Additional photographic collections are listed below.
UCLA: Changing Times: Los Angeles in Photographs, 1920-1990
Over 5,000 images from the archives of the Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Daily News covering the history and growth of Los Angeles from the 1920s to 1990.
Early Photography: 1839-1860
4,000 early photographs from the collections of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Print Room of the University of Leiden, and 25 other museums, libraries, and archives in the Netherlands.
George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film
Growing collection of digitized versions of photographs housed in the George Eastman House collection. (Images are copyrighted and available for noncommercial use for a fee.)
J. Paul Getty Museum
A small but diverse online collection of photographs grouped by photographic technology.
Creative Commons Flickr Photos
Flickr is a photo-sharing Web site. Many users of the site choose to offer their work under a Creative Commons license, allowing greater flexibility for use than standard copyright.
LIFE Magazine Photo Archive
Hosted by Google, this collection includes millions of photographs dating from the 1860s to the present, as well as other images dating back to the 1750s. (All images are © Time Inc. unless published before 1923, in which case they are in the public domain.)
OAIster
OAIster is a union catalog of digital resources, including many digital image libraries. You may use OAIster to search on the metadata (cataloging information such as creator, subject, and key words), but you will not be able to see an image until you click its URL in the record.
You may also want to look at Kurt Buyse's exhaustive list of online image resources at his Random Knowledge blog or at the list of online visual resources compiled by ACRL.
Web Resources
Overviews
- A History of Photography: From Its Beginnings to the 1920s
A good starting point for learning about the history of photography. Includes suggested readings, an essay on the beginning of photography, more than 100 biographic sketches of important figures in the history of photography, and information about the major processes, styles, and movements in photography. Maintained by author and educator Robert Leggat.
- The First Photograph
An online exhibit from the Harry Ransom Center of the University of Texas-Austin. The exhibition is built around a “heliograph,” taken by Frenchman Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826. The site includes the story of how photo-historian Helmut Gernsheim followed clues to locate the photograph and establish its provenance. He later donated it to the Ransom Center.
- The Foundations of an Art: A Prehistory of Photography
Focuses on two discoveries—the camera obscura and photochemistry—which were essential to the later development of photography.
Timelines
- Image Permanence Institute Photography Timeline
This concise timeline includes examples of images made with various photographic processes.
- Photomuse
Year-by-year chronology of photography from 1830 to 2006. The timeline is organized into ten-year increments and cross-referenced with political and cultural events in the same years.
- Timeline of Color Photography
- Compiled by Jennifer Uhrhane, this Web site provides a timeline of events in the development of color photography.
Overviews of Photographic Processes
- British Library, Historic Photographs, Photographic Processes
Provides definitions and examples of eight early photographic processes.
- Glossary of Processing Terms
Provides overviews of more than 50 terms related to photographic processing. Includes suggestions for additional reading and links to examples from exhibits.
- Lost and Found: Rediscovering Early Photographic Processes
Online component of an exhibition on early photographic processes, held at the Fisher Gallery at the University of Southern California. Focuses on ambrotypes, daguerreotypes, tintypes, and miniature cases.
- Victoria and Albert Museum: Photographic Processes
Concise explanations of more than 20 photographic processes.
Web resources links and descriptions from:
"Uncapping the Lens, The History of Early Photography," American Library Association, January 07, 2009. http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/publications/crlnews/2009/jan/uncappingthelens.cfm (Accessed January 09, 2009)
This Research Guide By:
Matt Bailey- Media Resources Coordinator
- x7670
- mbailey@carleton.edu
- Library 465
