The Ilford Manual of Photography was first published in 1890, written by C. H. Bothamley, and published by the Britannia Works Company, which became Ilford, Limited, in 1901.
Technical information regarding optics, chemistry and printing are described in far greater depth than in other photographic books, and therefore it quickly became the staple technical book for the professional or serious amateur photographer. It remained so for some time, and with each additional edition further information was added so that it might remain relevant, until the final 5th edition was published, in 1958. It still lines the bookshelves of many serious photographers, consequent to its tremendous depth, and the publication of many of the recipes for developers, including the popular ID-11 and IF-2, Ilford Photo's then non-hardening fixer. This represents a tremendous boon for the photographer, and did even more so in the early 20th century, when many would mix their own chemistry. It is comparable in many ways to Ansel Adams' books The Camera, The Negative and The Print, in its logical description of exposing film (and plates), developing the negative, and printing from those negatives.
It continues to be published as the Manual of Photography, by Elsevier, last edition being the 10th, released in 2011.
Famous quotes containing the words manual and/or photography:
“Criticism is infested with the cant of materialism, which assumes that manual skill and activity is the first merit of all men, and disparages such as say and do not, overlooking the fact, that some men, namely, poets, are natural sayers, sent into the world to the end of expression, and confounds them with those whose province is action, but who quit to imitate the sayers.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“If photography is allowed to stand in for art in some of its functions it will soon supplant or corrupt it completely thanks to the natural support it will find in the stupidity of the multitude. It must return to its real task, which is to be the servant of the sciences and the arts, but the very humble servant, like printing and shorthand which have neither created nor supplanted literature.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)