Book The History of Photos From the Cave to the Computer Screen - Thames & Hudson

A photograph, says David Hockney, is the only way we can describe what we see. But all image creators share a common problem: how to compress three-dimensional people, things, and places onto a flat surface? The results are often categorised as paintings, photographs, or films. Alternatively, they can be sorted by date and style: medieval, Renaissance, or Baroque. In reality, Hockney argues, whether made with a brush, a camera, or a digital programme, and whether found on cave walls or computer screens, they are primarily images. To understand how we perceive the world around us - and therefore ourselves - a history of images is needed. This is that book. Inspired and energised by a lifetime of painting, drawing, and taking photographs with cameras, Hockney, in collaboration with art critic Martin Gayford, explores how and why images have been made over the millennia. What makes marks on a flat surface interesting? How do you show movement in an image and conversely, how do films and television connect with the old masters? How can time and space be condensed into a static image on canvas or screen? What do images show - truth or lies? Do photographs depict the world we experience?

By juxtaposing a rich variety of images - a frame from a Disney cartoon with a Japanese woodblock print by Hiroshige, a scene from an Eisenstein film with a painting by Velázquez - the authors transcend the normal boundaries between high culture and popular entertainment and make unexpected connections across time and media. Drawing on Hockney's groundbreaking book Secret Knowledge, they demonstrate that film, photography, painting, and drawing are closely interconnected. This insightful and thought-provoking history of images makes an important contribution to our appreciation of how we represent our reality.

Thames & Hudson was founded in 1949 by Walter and Eva Neurath. Their greatest passion and mission was to create a "museum without walls" and make the world of art accessible to a wide audience, as well as the research of leading scholars. To reflect international perspectives, the company's name combined the rivers flowing through London and New York, represented in its logo by two dolphins symbolising friendship and intelligence, one facing east, the other west, suggesting a link between the Old World and the New.

Today, still an independent, family-owned business, Thames & Hudson is one of the world's leading publishers of illustrated books with over 2000 titles in print. It publishes high-quality collectible books in all areas of visual creativity: the arts (fine, applied, decorative, performing), architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and music, as well as archaeology, history, and popular culture. The list of children's books is also expanding. Based in London with a sister company in New York and subsidiaries in Melbourne, Singapore, and Hong Kong. In Paris, another subsidiary, Interart, distributes English-language books in France.

The history of the Thames & Hudson brand

Walter Neurath was born in Vienna in 1903. In 1938, he left his hometown - where he ran an art gallery and published illustrated books - for London. Initially, he worked as a production director at Adprint, a brand founded by Viennese émigré Wolfgang Foges. Neurath and Foges developed the innovative concept of what is now called book packaging (or co-edition publishing), where book ideas are developed, commissioned, produced, and sold to publishers operating in different markets and languages to create large print runs, thereby reducing unit production costs. Neurath's concept was the first of many innovations he introduced to the publishing world through Thames & Hudson.

Wishing to continue packaging collectible books in a second edition and recognising the need to amortise the high production costs of illustrated books, Neurath established his own publishing house, with offices in London and New York in the autumn of 1949. Eva Neurath, who arrived in London from Berlin in 1939, was a co-founder.

Of the ten titles that were published on Thames & Hudson's first list in 1950, English Cathedrals, with photographs by Martin Hürlimann, was the first and most successful. A testament to the brand's strong belief in the longevity of books from the very beginning, it remained in print until 1971. In the first year of publication, "Out of My Later Years" by Albert Einstein also appeared, an early indicator of the programme's breadth. With the gradual and successful expansion of the list, which grew from ten titles in 1950 to 144 in 1955, the company moved its offices in High Holborn and in 1956 relocated to a Georgian townhouse at 30 Bloomsbury Street, near Bedford Square, then the epicentre of book publishing in London. The company remained at this address, eventually expanding to five houses, until 1999, when it returned to High Holborn.

In 1958, Thames and Hudson launched one of their most famous series, World of Art, which became the foundation of a very diverse list. Characterised by their pocket size and black spines, the series expanded in just seven years to include 49 titles. Nearly 60 years later, the series featured over 300 titles, of which, according to Christopher Frayling, "there are 'paint-splattered copies' in every art school in the country".

Other important series that added depth and prestige to the list include Ancient People and Places, edited by Glyn Daniel, which since the 1950s contributed to pioneering interest in archaeology, both in book form and on television. Over 34 titles were published in the series over 34 years. The large-format series Great Civilizations, published in 1961, included contributions from such esteemed scholars as Alan Bullock, Asa Briggs, Hugh Trevor-Roper, A. J. P. Taylor, and John Julius Norwich.
After building one of the most important publishing houses in Europe in less than two decades, Walter Neurath died in 1967 at the age of 63. Sculptor Henry Moore wrote that "his death was a loss to our cultural life". Sir Herbert Read noted that Neurath "more than any other person was responsible for the revolution in publishing art books" and was "one of those rare entrepreneurs who successfully combined business acumen with idealism". Eva Neurath became chairperson. Walter's son, Thomas, who joined the company with his sister Constance in 1961, became managing director; Constance later served as art director for several decades. Both Thomas and Constance remain on the board of Thames & Hudson, as do Thomas's daughters, Johanna and Susanna.
From producing the first commercial edition of The Book of Kells to the triumphant publication of the six-volume Vincent van Gogh - The Letters, from such technical innovations as "French folds" to the controversial documentation of graffiti art in Subway Art, Thames and Hudson have always been at the forefront, both culturally and in production techniques.

The year 2016 opened an extraordinary new chapter for the company, heralding a publishing partnership with two of the world's most important museums: the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The world of art and scholarship thus remains at the heart of Thames & Hudson's publishing programme, which remains true to its core principle: providing a "museum without walls".
Today, Thames & Hudson is a recognisable international brand, a symbol of English publishing. Their catalogue includes thousands of amazing book titles, many of which are luxury collector's books.