The Birth of Photography: Highlights of the Gernsheim Collection is a publication to accompany the exhibition at the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen in Mannheim, Germany. While the work presented is united by its belonging to a private collection, due to the sheer significance of some of the pieces, the collection is an incredible survey of photography as a field. Just as a few examples: The first photograph, “View from the Window at Le Gras” by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce; “Notre Dame and the Ile de la Cité” by Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre; and “The Steerage” by Alfred Stieglitz.

Notre Dame und die Ile de la Cité, Paris
Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, ca. 1838
Historische Gernsheim-Collection / Harry Ransom Center
The University of Texas at Austin

Helmut Gernsheim, who would have been 100 years old in 2013, was a massive collector of photography, along with his first wife Alison. The Gernsheim Collection, at the time it was taken over by the The University of Texas was roughly 35,000 original prints, over 3,000 books and albums, equipment, manuscripts, and the Gernsheims’ original correspondence and research files. The exhibition (and the book) brings together works from the collection which are now distributed between UT and the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen.

The book introduces itself through quite a lot of historical and explanatory text, including a background of the collection and the Gernsheims, a description of the development and challenges of the collection over time, and also technical descriptions of the conservation efforts of The First Photograph. Overall, they provide a massive amount of context for the not only the birth of photography, but its evolution over time. As an appendix, there is also a timeline of the development of photography, beginning with 5^th century B.C. observations on light, as well as a glossary of some of the print process types mentioned along with the photos.

V-J-Tag, Time Square, New York
Alfred Eisenstaedt, 1945
© Getty Images / Time & Life Pictures / Fotograf: Alfred
Eisenstaedt / Kollektion: Masters
Zeitgenössische Gernsheim-Collection / Forum Internationale
Photographie / Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen

The book is made quite simply, as a somewhat standard exhibition catalogue, but it is elegant: The photos are printed in a good size, each with brief information about the photographer, the specifications of the print in collection, and a brief descriptive text of either the photograph or the photographer’s significance.

The photographs are divided into genres, including: Landscape and Urban Space, Travel Photography and Ethno-Photography, Still Lifes, Photojournalism, TIO Group, Images of People, and Experimental Photography. In addition to the first inventors of photography, work is included by such notables as Sir William Henry Fox Talbot (who discovered the important concept of negative/positive processes), Ansel Adams, Paul Strand, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bruce Gilden, and Elliott Erwitt. In short, it’s a magnificent representation of the photographic movement.

The Birth of Photography is on sale by its publisher Kehrer Verlag. The exhibition at the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen is on display until January 6, 2013.

Model Patricia führt Mode von Jacques Fath vor
Walde Huth, Paris 1955
© Walde Huth / Archiv Horst Gläser / www.waldehuth.de
Zeitgenössische Gernsheim-Collection / Forum Internationale
Photographie / Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen

Reviewed by Katherine Oktober Matthews.