The Keepers of Light — A History & Working Guide to Early Photographic Processes

by William Crawford, John Alcorn (Book designer)

This book provides detailed history of photographic processes and serves as a practical how-to guide for photographers and printmakers. It combines a history of the development of photography with guidelines for mastering the photographic print processes which the great nineteenthand twentieth-century pioneers of photography themselves employed.

Genres: Photography, History, Nonfiction, Art

322 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has been officially out of print for years now, but it's worth tracking down if you have an interest in 19th and early 20th-century photographic processes. Crawford's book is unique in providing first an historical overview of the development of photography, and how it developed into an art form (some of this feels a little bit dated: it's very "70s" to discuss how all this relates to "syntax" and how Western art is a language). But the historical information is still worth reading. The second half of the book then provides step-by-step instructions for how to do these techniques yourself. So the book is useful for those interested in the history of photos, because it clearly explains what went into making these images (really useful to know, just as it helps to know about how oil painting works if you want to fully appreciate art history). And for practicing artists, it's a helpful guide to doing these things yourself, anchored in an historical context. I would suggest that anyone really into mastering "alternative" photo processes will want to buy this book in conjunction with "Coming Into Focus," because all the examples in Crawford's book are historical, while all the examples in "Focus" are contemporary.