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Flashes of Brilliance: The Genius of Early Photography and How It Transformed Art, Science, and History
The story of the wildest experiments in early photography and the wild people who undertook them.
Today it’s routine to take photos from an airplane window, use a camera underwater, watch a movie, or view an X-ray. But the photographic innovations more than a century ago that made such things possible were experimental, revelatory, and sometimes dangerous—and many of the innovators, entrepreneurs, and inventors behind them were memorable eccentrics. In Flashes of Brilliance, writer and photo editor Anika Burgess engagingly blends art, science, and social history to reveal the most dramatic developments in photography from its birth in the 1830s to the early twentieth century.
Writing with verve and an eye for compelling details, Burgess explores how photographers uncovered new vistas, including catacombs, cities at night, the depths of the ocean, and the surface of the moon. She describes how photographers captured the world as never seen before, showing for the first time the bones of humans, the motion of animals, the cells of plants, and the structure of snowflakes. She takes us on a tour of astonishing innovations, including botanist Anna Atkins and her extraordinary blue-hued cyanotypes and the world’s first photobook; Eadweard Muybridge and Étienne-Jules Marey’s famed experiments in capturing motion and their long legacy; large format photography and photographs so small as to be invisible to the naked eye; and aerial photography using balloons, kites, pigeons, and rockets. Burgess also delves into the early connections between photography and society that are still with us today: how photo manipulation—the art of “fake images”—was an issue right from the start; how the police used the telephoto lens to surveil suffragists; and how leading Black figures like Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass adapted self-portraits to assert their identity and autonomy.
Richly illustrated and filled with fascinating tales, Flashes of Brilliance shows how the rise of a new art form transformed culture and our view of the world.
Today it’s routine to take photos from an airplane window, use a camera underwater, watch a movie, or view an X-ray. But the photographic innovations more than a century ago that made such things possible were experimental, revelatory, and sometimes dangerous—and many of the innovators, entrepreneurs, and inventors behind them were memorable eccentrics. In Flashes of Brilliance, writer and photo editor Anika Burgess engagingly blends art, science, and social history to reveal the most dramatic developments in photography from its birth in the 1830s to the early twentieth century.
Writing with verve and an eye for compelling details, Burgess explores how photographers uncovered new vistas, including catacombs, cities at night, the depths of the ocean, and the surface of the moon. She describes how photographers captured the world as never seen before, showing for the first time the bones of humans, the motion of animals, the cells of plants, and the structure of snowflakes. She takes us on a tour of astonishing innovations, including botanist Anna Atkins and her extraordinary blue-hued cyanotypes and the world’s first photobook; Eadweard Muybridge and Étienne-Jules Marey’s famed experiments in capturing motion and their long legacy; large format photography and photographs so small as to be invisible to the naked eye; and aerial photography using balloons, kites, pigeons, and rockets. Burgess also delves into the early connections between photography and society that are still with us today: how photo manipulation—the art of “fake images”—was an issue right from the start; how the police used the telephoto lens to surveil suffragists; and how leading Black figures like Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass adapted self-portraits to assert their identity and autonomy.
Richly illustrated and filled with fascinating tales, Flashes of Brilliance shows how the rise of a new art form transformed culture and our view of the world.
336 pages, Hardcover
Published July 8, 2025
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5537 people want to read
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November 22, 2025DNF. I realized that I am just not that interested in the history of photography. Got through 1-1/2 chapters of this.
September 12, 2025
Very interesting subject. It did get monotonous after awhile.
The transitions between topics weren’t very good.
The transitions between topics weren’t very good.
December 16, 2025
I bought this book because I am a fine art photographer based in Fredericksburg. The expanded title reads “The Genius of Early Photography and How it Transformed Art, Science and History.” If that sounds dry, this but is anything but. It’s an absolute delight!
The beginnings of photography often involved scientists (some fitting the “mad” description), doctors, tinkerers and inventors. I’ll highlight some of my favorite revelations in list form:
• In the late 19th century in Paris and Chicago, people had photographs printed on their skin and on fingernails.
• Picric acid, used in flash powder, is highly explosive. It fell out of use decades ago, but a batch was found at a school laboratory in Olney, MD in 2022. Many people lost their lives trying to figure out how to bring light to photography.
• In the late 1880s, Jacob Riis used a camera and flash powder to expose the dangerous and filthy conditions in NYC tenements. He’d walk up a dark staircase and set off the flash, resulting in astonished looks from his subjects.
• In 1869, residents were warned not to hang a photo on a green wall as it was likely to fade due to arsenic in the green paint.
• William H. Mumler produced “spirit photographs” in New York. He manipulated photos which showed the buyer sitting with a ghostly specter. One of his customers was Mary Todd Lincoln.
• In the late 19th century, “photo fiends” took candid photos of celebrities and women’s ankles as they bathed at a beach. They made a lot of money doing this (some things haven’t changed, unfortunately).
• Tiny cameras, hidden in buttonholes or top hats, took pictures inside courtrooms.
Burgess provides fascinating details on photography from balloons (and kites carrying people), underwater cameras (the diver/photographer wore equipment weighing at least 170 pounds), and how Eastman revolutionized photography for the common man (or woman) with his Kodak #1 in 1888.
If you’ve ever been to a meeting or a convention where you traded business cards, you’ll appreciate the section on carte-de-visites. They were small cards with photos – of you, your family, your dog – whatever you wanted to share with someone. People collected these and put them into albums (Queen Victoria had 36 albums). After the death of Prince Albert, more than 70,000 orders came in for his carte-de-visite.
One of the most fascinating chapters covers x-rays – how they came about and the terrible deaths of many people who were over-exposed to the harmful rays. It must have been unbelievable to see inside your body. X-ray machines were available for home entertainment. For a penny on a London Street in 1896 you could have your bones x-rayed. By Christmas of that year, x-rays were featured on family holiday cards.
This is just a taste of the fascinating research done by Burgess. The writing is engaging, often humorous, and the book is filled with accompanying archival photographs. I wish I could share it with my dad, who studied photography at the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1930s. Anyone who carries around a camera (most of us have one attached to our hand as a cell phone) will delight in how we ever got this far in capturing a moment in time.
The beginnings of photography often involved scientists (some fitting the “mad” description), doctors, tinkerers and inventors. I’ll highlight some of my favorite revelations in list form:
• In the late 19th century in Paris and Chicago, people had photographs printed on their skin and on fingernails.
• Picric acid, used in flash powder, is highly explosive. It fell out of use decades ago, but a batch was found at a school laboratory in Olney, MD in 2022. Many people lost their lives trying to figure out how to bring light to photography.
• In the late 1880s, Jacob Riis used a camera and flash powder to expose the dangerous and filthy conditions in NYC tenements. He’d walk up a dark staircase and set off the flash, resulting in astonished looks from his subjects.
• In 1869, residents were warned not to hang a photo on a green wall as it was likely to fade due to arsenic in the green paint.
• William H. Mumler produced “spirit photographs” in New York. He manipulated photos which showed the buyer sitting with a ghostly specter. One of his customers was Mary Todd Lincoln.
• In the late 19th century, “photo fiends” took candid photos of celebrities and women’s ankles as they bathed at a beach. They made a lot of money doing this (some things haven’t changed, unfortunately).
• Tiny cameras, hidden in buttonholes or top hats, took pictures inside courtrooms.
Burgess provides fascinating details on photography from balloons (and kites carrying people), underwater cameras (the diver/photographer wore equipment weighing at least 170 pounds), and how Eastman revolutionized photography for the common man (or woman) with his Kodak #1 in 1888.
If you’ve ever been to a meeting or a convention where you traded business cards, you’ll appreciate the section on carte-de-visites. They were small cards with photos – of you, your family, your dog – whatever you wanted to share with someone. People collected these and put them into albums (Queen Victoria had 36 albums). After the death of Prince Albert, more than 70,000 orders came in for his carte-de-visite.
One of the most fascinating chapters covers x-rays – how they came about and the terrible deaths of many people who were over-exposed to the harmful rays. It must have been unbelievable to see inside your body. X-ray machines were available for home entertainment. For a penny on a London Street in 1896 you could have your bones x-rayed. By Christmas of that year, x-rays were featured on family holiday cards.
This is just a taste of the fascinating research done by Burgess. The writing is engaging, often humorous, and the book is filled with accompanying archival photographs. I wish I could share it with my dad, who studied photography at the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1930s. Anyone who carries around a camera (most of us have one attached to our hand as a cell phone) will delight in how we ever got this far in capturing a moment in time.
June 22, 2025
Anika Burgess’ Flashes of Brilliance is a fascinating exploration of the early years of photography. Presented in a series of snapshots (yes, I did) she covers different advances and means for capturing images. This includes some of the early types of prints, daguerreotype, wet colloidal and dry gelatin, to the celluloid film used by George Eastman and his Kodak company that helped bring photography to the masses.
With each advance in producing images the things photos could be taken of and the places where they could be taken also evolved. People could take photos of the moon, in the dark, in balloons and in the water, with experimentation and increasing degrees of success. Photo could also be blown up or scaled down as negatives came into existence, allowing for giant images or ones contained on small items like jewelry that required a magnifying glass to view.
It also allowed for permanent proof of things only observed through telescopes and microscopes, and in the case of x-rays, allowed things to be seen through solid matter.
The focus of Burgess’ book is undoubtedly the advances of the technology itself, but she also draws attention to the fact that photography was in the annals of recorded history, mostly a white man’s world, though drawing attention to women and noted Black photographer James Presley Ball.
Cartes de visite were the nineteenth century’s version of our modern day 4x6 prints, allowing people to share pictures with family, friends and acquaintances, and collect photos of the current day celebrities. And while I knew that Frederick Douglass was the most photographed individual of the century, I was blown away to learn that Sojurner Truth retained copyrights to her photographic likeness in a smart and savvy move that was decades ahead of its time.
I have taken photography classes, so I have knowledge and more than a passing interest in photography, but this book is easily readable even for someone with no background on the subject. The historical events connected to the camera alone would be fascinating. For someone with a more dedicated interest but a lack of a more comprehensive history of the early years of photography this fills in gaps in an interesting and engaging manner. I would recommend it for anyone who enjoys science, history and/or nonfiction. A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
With each advance in producing images the things photos could be taken of and the places where they could be taken also evolved. People could take photos of the moon, in the dark, in balloons and in the water, with experimentation and increasing degrees of success. Photo could also be blown up or scaled down as negatives came into existence, allowing for giant images or ones contained on small items like jewelry that required a magnifying glass to view.
It also allowed for permanent proof of things only observed through telescopes and microscopes, and in the case of x-rays, allowed things to be seen through solid matter.
The focus of Burgess’ book is undoubtedly the advances of the technology itself, but she also draws attention to the fact that photography was in the annals of recorded history, mostly a white man’s world, though drawing attention to women and noted Black photographer James Presley Ball.
Cartes de visite were the nineteenth century’s version of our modern day 4x6 prints, allowing people to share pictures with family, friends and acquaintances, and collect photos of the current day celebrities. And while I knew that Frederick Douglass was the most photographed individual of the century, I was blown away to learn that Sojurner Truth retained copyrights to her photographic likeness in a smart and savvy move that was decades ahead of its time.
I have taken photography classes, so I have knowledge and more than a passing interest in photography, but this book is easily readable even for someone with no background on the subject. The historical events connected to the camera alone would be fascinating. For someone with a more dedicated interest but a lack of a more comprehensive history of the early years of photography this fills in gaps in an interesting and engaging manner. I would recommend it for anyone who enjoys science, history and/or nonfiction. A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
September 12, 2025
*4.53 Stars
Notes: I found this book to be very informative on past topics in relation to photography and its history. While I knew of this book from looking up some history novels online, I was glad to have found a library copy of it to read.
Before writing this review, I have looked at no other reviews that were written on this novel. I enjoyed how the book was written. However, I’m going to automatically include that any further knowledge of photography I have - is only from research I have done myself - as I have had no classes in it.
I could easily read most of the chapters, since they weren’t too boring or slower paced. I chose to read this book in a shorter amount of time than normal.
This book is not necessarily boring. There can be mini-stories or other very interesting facts found in several chapters about a person in the past who contributed to photography. There can also be content found related to other materials used for photo making, including stuff related to making daguerreotypes.
I found most of the content in this book relevant to what it was supposed to be written about, so I do not have many issues with the novel.
I’d recommend this novel to those who have previously looked into photography history, or have an interest in it. Everything included is explained enough thoroughly, that this book can be entirely understood by itself.
Notes: I found this book to be very informative on past topics in relation to photography and its history. While I knew of this book from looking up some history novels online, I was glad to have found a library copy of it to read.
Before writing this review, I have looked at no other reviews that were written on this novel. I enjoyed how the book was written. However, I’m going to automatically include that any further knowledge of photography I have - is only from research I have done myself - as I have had no classes in it.
I could easily read most of the chapters, since they weren’t too boring or slower paced. I chose to read this book in a shorter amount of time than normal.
This book is not necessarily boring. There can be mini-stories or other very interesting facts found in several chapters about a person in the past who contributed to photography. There can also be content found related to other materials used for photo making, including stuff related to making daguerreotypes.
I found most of the content in this book relevant to what it was supposed to be written about, so I do not have many issues with the novel.
I’d recommend this novel to those who have previously looked into photography history, or have an interest in it. Everything included is explained enough thoroughly, that this book can be entirely understood by itself.
November 10, 2025
Fascinating history of how photography developed in the 19th century. Well written and filled with facts, historical figures, and illustrative anecdotes, as well as a good number of images - a must, given the topic. I was so taken with the book that I probably recounted about three quarters of its contents to my wife and daughter, although my enthusiasm may not have been entirely shared by the latter.
The book is organized around themes, which was, I think the best choice. It does however result in some disjointedness as we move to a new section and jump back a number of years.
Like the best non-fiction books do, it has inspired me to look at the world a little bit differently and left me curious to learn more.
The book is organized around themes, which was, I think the best choice. It does however result in some disjointedness as we move to a new section and jump back a number of years.
Like the best non-fiction books do, it has inspired me to look at the world a little bit differently and left me curious to learn more.
September 26, 2025
I learned a lot from this book but I didn't like it much. The author organized the book in chunks according to subject - underwater photography, aerial photography, lunar photography, and so on. While I think the chapter organization used makes sense, I thought it felt disjointed. There was a lot of jumping backward and forward in time as the photography technology improved allowing for greater proficiency in each area but I would have liked a bit more connective tissue throughout. It would've benefited a great deal from a timeline.
November 19, 2025
What a fun ride through early photographic history! The book covers dates from the first cameras in the 19th century through to the first wet plate cameras. The cameras are not really the focus so much as the stories around them. In this way, chapters cover various applications that drove innovations that sometimes have staying power. The narrative is fun and informative. Extensive notes, bibliography, and added information for each image make up the appendices. A thorough index provides many entries that augment the table of contents. Enjoy this one!
September 5, 2025
This was a fun glimpse into the early history of photography. I’d never thought about how underwater photography was first developed.
My favorite chapters were near the end on the microphotograph and the X-rays.
I did a mix of ebook and audiobook and you really want the ebook or physical book if you read this one. The photographs really added to the book!! The audio narration was good too, but chapters I listened to I went back to the ebook to see what photos were included
(4.5 stars)
My favorite chapters were near the end on the microphotograph and the X-rays.
I did a mix of ebook and audiobook and you really want the ebook or physical book if you read this one. The photographs really added to the book!! The audio narration was good too, but chapters I listened to I went back to the ebook to see what photos were included
(4.5 stars)
July 10, 2025
An incredible journey throughout the early history of photography. This book, with its flowing and engaging writing style will enchant you and entertain you like no other factual literary work has done before. The most interesting historical facts are presented with pizzazz and an old world allure that will have you wanting more and more. A wonderful read!
July 12, 2025
Anika Burgess transports us back to the 19th century to experience a sense of what it must’ve been like to interact with the eccentric characters and witness the wild experiments of early photography. I loved her storytelling style that brims with passion, wonder, wit and joy.
May 27, 2025
Super interesting book that details the history of early photography. Anika writes in such a way to make it intriguing the whole way through, with added photos as well!
July 9, 2025
Amazing, enlightening, inspiring!
August 7, 2025
The photo of a pigeon wearing a camera really sold me. Wish I could see it for the first time again.
September 5, 2025
Awfully good, so rich and insightful that I had to rush through the end to return the overdue library copy. It will just have to be requested again!
September 22, 2025
Thank you for picking me as a giveaway winner. It was interesting to read about the history of cameras.
October 13, 2025
Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book.
December 5, 2025
Highly entertaining and engaging, with a lot of visual material and non-dry history of photography. Great read!
December 11, 2025
A fun, casual little read! Great for photographers or history enjoyers.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews