old photography mags online

[ksmattfish]

http://www.butkus.org/chinon/catalogs_guides.htm

At the bottom of the above page there are links to several pdf files of old photography mags. I think the history of photography is an area often neglected by the photogs of today. It's interesting to see that the same ideas are being discussed and debated today as 100 years ago.

Check out the Ansco camera ad in the first few pages of this copy of American Photographer from 1912.

http://www.cameramanuals.org/booklets/american_photograper_07-1912-1.pdf

"The Ansco Camera is so simple in construction and easy to work, that with it a child can make as good outdoor photographs as a professional."

The camera sales people have been telling us it's the gear that makes the photographer, and that anyone can be a pro photographer since the beginning. Notice the ads for dry plates: back then film was the upstart technology, and "real photographers" didn't use it.

 

[tirediron]

Thank-you; excellent reading. Interesting to note that if you correct for inflation, prices haven't really changed all that much in a hundred plus years.

 

[ksmattfish]

Here's another link to old public domain texts (and other stuff) online. You have to do some searching, but there are quite a few old photography books in their archive.

http://www.archive.org/index.php

One of my favorites

http://www.archive.org/details/lettersonlandsca00robirich