ANDERSON (Elbert). The Skylight and the Dark-Room: A Complete Text-Book on Portrait Photography. Containing the Outlines of Hydrostatics, Pneumatics, Acoustics, Heat, Optics, Chemistry, and a Full and Comprehensive System of the Art of Photographic. With Twelve Splendid Explanatory Photographs, and Nearly Two Hundred Illustrations.1872

Philadelphia: Benerman & Wilson, First edition, small 4to (220 x 165 mm), viii, [1], 10-234pp., 12 actual photographs laid-down of 5 plates, numerous illustrs., within the text, some light scattered spotting, mottling to endpapers, original publisher's bevelled green cloth, gilt vignette to upper cover, a very good copy. A rare and comprehensive guide to the science and method of portrait photography, illustrated with 12 original photographic examples of how to set up and mount the perfect portrait. It was described in an 1872 issue of The Photographic Times as "the most complete, elaborate, and comprehensive work on photography that has ever been published." Elbert Anderson was employed by the Kurtz's Studio, New York. "Beginning in the 1860s, vignetted heads and upper torsos became a popular style of portrait photographs known as the "Rembrandt style". Kurtz perfected a process using a series of reflectors to concentrate and bounce sunlight onto the subject's face. With the subject seated against a dark background, the result emphasized strong features and masked weaker ones."—Jezierski, Enterprising Images, p.69.