The Painted Photograph 1839-1914: Origins, Techniques, Aspirations

Rating:
Summary: Best book available on this (forgotten) subject.
Review: Very little information about the practice of painting (as opposed to tinting; there is a difference) photography has been available. This book covers incredible ground, pulling together material from advertisements, photography texts, archives and collections in order to present an overview of the climate, practice, and production of painted photography. Most other material extant focuses on individual artists who happened to overpaint their photographs, or of particular artworks which are photographs that have been painted on. Henisch shows the existence of a trend in early photography which seems to have been relegated to the sidelines as an analomy or as an isolated practice.
This is an incredible work, well - written, and evocative of Henisch's broad scope of scholarship.