ABSTRACT
In 1982, the publication of the fifth edition of Beaumont Newhall’s book The History of Photography: From 1839 to the Present guaranteed its status as the canonical history of the medium. This chapter looks at canon formation in Newhall’s history of photography. It describes the context in which it was written, its basic principles and its influence on the absorption of photography into art historical studies and museum collecting practices. The canonical history of photography created a useable past for an apotheosis of American Straight Photography. It tended to emphasize the history of photography as a history of a unique medium of visual expression thus excluding its most quotidian uses. The late 1970s brought a crisis in the discipline of history of art that exposed the inherent structural flaws of Newhall’s history of photography. The strengths and weaknesses of Newhall’s approach are here assessed.
