The definitive history of photography book, Seizing the Light: A Social & Aesthetic History of Photography delivers the fascinating story of how photography as an art form came into being, and its continued development, maturity, and transformation.

Covering major events, practitioners, works, and social effects of photographic practice, author Robert Hirsch provides a concise and discerning chronological account of photography, drawing on examples from across the world. This fundamental starting place shows the diversity of makers, inventors, issues, and applications, exploring the artistic, critical, and social aspects of the creative thinking process. This new edition has been fully revised and updated to include the latest advances in technology and digital photography, as well as information on contemporary photographers such as Granville Carroll, Meryl McMaster, Cindy Sherman, Penelope Umbrico, and Yang Yongliang. New topics include the rise of mobile photography and surveillance cameras, drone photography, image manipulation, protest and social justice photography, plus the roles of artificial intelligence and social media in photography. Highly illustrated with over 250 full-color images and contributions from hundreds of artists around the world, Seizing the Light serves as a gateway to the history of photography.

Written in an accessible style, it is perfect for those newly engaging with the practice of photography and for experienced photographers wanting to contextualize their own work.


1. Advancing Towards Photography: The Rise of the Reproduction 2. The Daguerreotype: Image and Object 3. Calotype Rising: The Arrival of Photography 4. Pictures on Glass: The Wet Plate Process 5. World News Current Events: Picturing Tragedy 6. A New Medium of Communication 7. The Travelling Camera: Photography and Landscape 8. New Ways of Visualizing Time, Space, and Color 9. Suggesting the Subject: The Evolution of Pictorialism 10. Modernism's Innovations 11. The New Culture of Light 12. Social Documents 13. Catching Time 14. From Halftones to Bytes 15. The Atomic Age 16. New Frontiers: Expanding Boundaries 17. Changing Realities 18. Thinking About Photography 19. The Politics of Representation 20. Photography Becomes Digital Imaging