Picturing the Past – An Unconventional Pocket History of Photography is a new book project which sets out to deliver exactly what it says on the cover! Instead of revisiting the standard chronological account of photography's first one hundred and eighty years, the book picks up a number of themes and explores how they have influenced photography as we know it today. The selected themes are diverse, some of them focused on early photography – such as early patents, the first cameras, the first studios,  – while others pick up on themes of love and marriage, death, war, and many more, and look at how they have been dealt with by generations of photographers. The quest for colour, the development of speed systems, early exposure meters, and the relationship between guns and the terminology used in photography, are all explored.

The book answers a lot of questions – such as who took the first instantaneous picture, who introduced the reflex camera, when were the first pictures taken using artificial light, who marketed the first 35mm camera and so on, and uses a rich variety of pictures in so doing. The text contains a wealth of information – from key facts to fascinating trivia – all delivered in a light and readable format.

A publisher is currently being sought for this title.

Some specimen spreads from a possible layout for the book are illustrated below