Photospeak: A Guide to the Ideas, Movements, and Techniques of Photography, 1839 to the Present

The author, Gilles Mora, a former editor of "Cahiers de Photographie" called his book a "guide." I think it is more of an encyclopedia. Divided, as it is, into the categories of "Who, When, Where & What," the reader can easily find the principal photographers from 1839 til today ("Who"), the moment of greatest significance for a particular style or method of photography ("When"), the cities, countries and continents in which a movement was centered ("Where") and the nature and origins of the style or technique (What").For example, we learn that "collage" which had long been used in decorative arts, was actually first used in fine art when Picasso pasted oilcloth onto his 1912 painting "Still Life With Chair Caning." We learn a useful, simple definition of collage and how some modernist painters/photographers have used it including David Hockney and Robert Frank in the 1980's. We learn that in 1854, a man named Andre-Adolphe-Eugene Disderi patented something called a "carte-de-visite" which is a portrait glued to a piece of cardboard the size of a traditional visiting card....like the ones forever being left on hallway trays in the novels of Edith Wharton and Henry James.There also terms and phrases we might have heard but, perhaps, did not understand fully like "contact sheet" or "daguerreotype," "The New York School" or "Photojournalism" and "Camera Obscura" to name just a few.The book is crammed full of wonderful bits and pieces of information, interestingly written and invaluable for the photographer, the photography collector or the hobbyist. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.