COE (Brian). - Lot 62

COE (Brian). The First Century of Photography. Paris, Filipacchi / Denoël, [circa 1977]. Large quarto, publisher’s hardcover with illustrated dust jacket. French edition of one of the great classics in the history of photography, written by Brian Coe, then curator of the Kodak Museum in Harrow. A truly comprehensive and richly illustrated overview, the book traces the first hundred years of photography, from Nicéphore Niépce’s experiments to the major movements of the early 20th century. The author traces the evolution of photographic processes—heliography, daguerreotype, calotype, wet collodion, dry plates, and then gelatin-bromide—while introducing the key inventors and photographers who shaped this history: Nicéphore Niépce, Louis Daguerre, William Henry Fox Talbot, Gustave Le Gray, Julia Margaret Cameron, Nadar, Roger Fenton, Timothy O’Sullivan, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Eugène Atget, among others. The extensive illustrations include major works as well as cameras, historical documents, and early photographic processes, making this volume an excellent introduction to the technical and aesthetic history of photography. Condition: copy from the ORT Library in Amiens (stamp on the title page); dust jacket shows some soiling, yellowing, creases, and small tears at the top; interior is clean.