Newhall's History

I like reading about the history of photography, but I've been haphazard in pursuing the subject.  I was pleased recently to locate a copy of Beaumont Newhall's The History of Photography at a library book sale for just a couple bucks. This last edition looked nearly twice the size of earlier ones.

Newhall was a pivotal figure in drawing attention to the "straight photography" style as practiced by such notables as Adams and Weston.  His "History" first appeared as a companion publication to an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in 1939. Besides a stint as a curator of photography at the MOMA, he also got the photography gallery under way at the George Eastman House in Rochester.  Newhall spent years as a teacher at the University of New Mexico and developed the school's photography program.

As an art historian Newhall developed an early interest in photography and brought a scholarly focus to the subject.  His recounting of photography's heroic 19th Century phase gives a clear view of the technical developments of the period along with the amazing stories of the major actors who took their giant wet plate cameras into the wilderness along with their darkrooms on wheels pulled by mule teams.  As a curator, Newhall championed the work of Stieglitz, Strand, Weston and many others whose stylistic innovations dominated fine art photography into the mid-Twentieth Century.

Newhall endeavored to keep his history up to date with four editions after the first, but in reading the later parts of the book questions seem to pile up faster than answers.  An overview is provided of major trends such as the development of documentary and photojournalistic work and some of the major players are mentioned, but there is not the same focus on style and substance which Newhall brought to examining the luminaries of the 1930s and '40s. Newhall lists the well known names of early Life magazine photographers and ticks off the war reporters such as Capa and Duncan.  He pays attention to those who struck out in new directions such as Cartier Bresson, Winogrand and Arbus.  However, in the final edition there is, inexplicably, no mention of the whole Civil Rights era and its chroniclers.  Where, for instance, is Gordon Parks and his history with the FSA and Life?  Where is Roy Decarava who was a fine arts star promoted by Szarkowski with solo exhibits at the MOMA? Based solely on Newhall's account, one would have to assume that there were no black Americans who owned cameras. By 1982 when the last edition of Newhall's "History" appears such omissions are unforgivable.

I think there are at least a couple important factors which contributed to the inadequacies of Newhall's final "History".  Firstly, the book is not really a history of photography.  It is a history of the elitist fine arts establishment; there was a lot more to photography than that by 1982.  The other likely source of problems is that the book was promoted by the publisher as a text book and it was likely used widely in university photography programs.  Such texts are typically updated annually with additions of dubious value to ensure that students buy new books rather than relying on the second hand market to meet class requirements. I do not know to what extent teachers in higher education relied on Newhall's book as a basic source for instruction, but I would hope that they drew on other sources to supplement the view offered by Newhall's text.