by Anika Burgess
336 pages, hardcover, $35
Published by W. W. Norton & Company
wwnorton.com

As Anika Burgess documents in her book Flashes of Brilliance, early photography was anything but convenient. Through their sheer perseverance, early photographers paved the way for deeper research in science, used their images to push social reform and championed a new artistic medium.

Burgess chronicles photographers from the mid-19th century to the early 20th, walking the reader through their daring and sometimes dangerous process. For example, flash powder—a mix of volatile chemical compounds—would create small explosions to artificially light very dark spaces. Journalist Jacob Riis captured New York’s crowded, poorly lit tenement houses using flash powder, several times setting fires indoors and almost burning his face.

Scientists were some of the earliest adopters and promoters. Amateur astronomers captured the lunar surface not yet seen in such great detail; marine biologists experimented with underwater photography, using clunky equipment that wasn’t always airtight; and the accidental discovery of x-rays changed medicine forever with the power to see through the human body.

As photography’s popularity grew, photos became tools to influence: Sojourner Truth created portraits of herself to show others as she wanted to be seen, unprecedented for a former slave. Truth and fellow social reformer Frederick Douglass both understood how images could be used to create and combat racial stereotypes.

Though the book has photographic examples, Flashes of Brilliance is packed with detailed text for the reader to understand the limitations of early photographic techniques and the extraordinary thinking that was needed for this medium to succeed. —Haniya Rae ca