This anthology gathers into a single volume 30 essays which embody the history of photography. Contributors include: Niepce, Daguerre, Fox Talbot, Poe, Baudelaire, Emerson, Hine, Stieglitz, Weston, Abbot, Barthes and others. Their writings encompass the technical origin and development of the medium, the aesthetic perspective of many influential photographers, and the evolution of critical analysis of the photographic image and its place in American cultural history.