Looking at Photographs: A Guide to Technical Terms

by Gordon Baldwin

This reference guide contains an informative history of photography, with explanations of the technical terms often encountered by gallery patrons and those taking an interest in the background to photographic excellence for the first time.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0892361921
• ISBN13: 9780892361922
• Release Date: October 1991
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 88 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 9.0" x 6.1"

Customer Reviews

Essential for Gallery and Museum Educators

I'd missed this book. It was in the library of the museum I worked for previously. Now that I serve as a curator of education in a non-profit gallery with an entire gallery dedicated to photography, a guidebook to photographic processes is essential. The book's beautiful layout and illustrations makes it a delight. Anyone interested in understanding historical or contemporary photography will benefit from this book.

A good but dated reference

Baldwin's slim lexicon is an excellent addition to the library of anyone interested in the history of photography. The 122 headwords are well defined and are amply illustrated with color and monochrome images. The vocabulary covers photographic processes from the early 19th century through the early/middle of the 20th. The lack of terms from the 1940s to the present is the one significant flaw in this book.Unlike some dictionaries, one can easily sit down and read this from cover to cover, flipping around for definitions as necessary (terms elsewhere defined are printed in small-caps). Synonymous entries are cross-referenced to the primary entry.Coverage of digital photography is minimal, but given the time it was written (1991) this is understandable. Also missing are terms like Kodachrome or Ektachrome (though mentioned in the entry for "Chromogenic Print"). Other terms I had hoped to see included 'Colorama', 'Land', 'Polaroid' (though this is alluded to in the entry for 'Dye Diffusion Print'), Giclees/Iris Prints, Lightjet Prints, Image Transfer, Emulsion Transfer, SX-70 manipulation, and no doubt many others I'm not thinking of right now.The typography, layout, and printing of the book is outstanding. Heavy glossy pages do the reproduced images justice. Examples are well chosen and represent a range of photographer's and genres.

A basic reference even for the pros

So you think you know it all? This slim, artfully produced, thorough glossary of terms is beautifully illustrated, has clear descriptions of all those mysterious processes on museum labels, including a few even you might not have known, and is as useful in a collector's library as in a contemporary practitioner's.