
Reference: SH-1167
Images Below (second hand)
A manual of underground and flash photography: cave photography for cavers, by Chris HowesEU customers must read the notes below before ordering
The history and development of underground and flash photography, by Chris Howes
EU customers must read the notes under the Non-UK Orders tab before ordering
Secure payment
Prices include delivery
We reuse packing materials
From the dustjacket
To Photograph Darkness traces the history of underground photography, and the techniques used, from the first pictures taken in the catacombs beneath Paris to the pyramids of Egypt, from American caves to Cornish tin mines, and underground locations throughout the world.
The opening chapters are concerned with the earliest experiments to record images without the aid of the sun in the 1860s. Innovative photographers have since used limelight, Bengal fire, arc lights, and even magnesium mixed with gunpowder to make the first crude flashpowder as well as specially designed electronic flashguns and powder burners giving a searing 2m flame. The story is continued to underwater and cine photography and the techniques used in cave photography today.
To Photograph Darkness is a fascinating and highly readable account of the use of artificial light and the difficulties the first underground photographers had to overcome - explosions, the boredom of models who would wander away half-way through a long exposure, falling rocks, fumes and dampness, and the superstitions and disbelief with which their results were often confronted. Ten years in the writing, it is the only book of its kind and is based on primary sources of information throughout. The extensive use of quotations retains the immediacy of the challenge that both amateur and professional cameramen had to overcome.
The book is illustrated with 160 engravings, line drawings and photographs, many of which have never been published before. If your interest is the underground world of caves and mines, or the development of artificial light and photographic history, To Photograph Darkness contains something of relevance and interest for you. Fully referenced and indexed, it can also be used to identify and track down rare photographs and photographers worldwide. This volume is a major research resource and the authoritative book on the subject.
For the companion title: Images Below
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 Let There Be Light
2 Magnesium: the Start of an Era
3 Mammoth Cave
4 Subterranean Light
5 Explosive Powders
6 Beneath the Deserts of France
7 Hand-hewn Rock
8 The Gentlemen Cavers
9 Lighting the Bat Cave
10 Moving Pictures
11 Post-war Underground
Appendices
1 A Chronology of Important Dates
2 Glossary
3 Dating Cave Photographs
4 Chemical Names
5 Units of Measurement
6 Notes & References
Picture Credits
Index
If stock is available for all post destinations, selecting any set of options will allow you to place your order immediately.
If stock is limited, for example with a single copy of a second-hand book, it will be assigned to UK stock. If you require posting to an address outside the UK, selecting your options may not allow an order to be placed, even though stock is available. If this is the case, please contact us to enable the options you require.
Please see our FAQs relating to deliveries, and the Delivery page linked from the bottom of each page, before placing your order if time is an important element for your order.
We regret that due to the volatility of Royal Mail postage charges, we have been forced to remove the option for two-year subscriptions. We have also been forced to remove the option for economy mail to the EU, given indications that Royal Mail intends to remove this service.
All international mail is now being despatched in paper wrapping using Royal Mail customs and address labels mandated by them. We also regret this means we can no longer indicate the last issue of your subscription on the mailing sheet or supply a reminder to renew with the final edition. Please track your own subscription ending or check with us at any time. Subscriptions begun since September 2021 have a comment added in your account (under the tab for the order) which records the final issue to be supplied.
On 1 July 2021 the EU removed all exemptions for tax and customs duty on low value items posted from the UK to the EU, meaning that although VAT is 0% on books and magazines in the UK, it is charged within the EU and the VAT (potentially plus a handling fee) now apply to all orders to the EU.
Ideally, the VAT should be paid at the point of posting, but doing so requires registration with an agent to handle the payments, and this is incredibly expensive and not financially viable. To be clear, all small publishers in the UK are in the same position and we are unable to post any items to the EU with VAT or other duties paid.
Ordering any item from Wild Places, including a Descent subscription, requires that you accept responsibility of paying the VAT and any other local charges on delivery.
To be clear: Wild Places will NOT cover any charges levied by your country; it is your responsibility to accept these when placing an order.
We apologise for the situation, but it is outside our control. We will maintain a link from the left-hand column on the home page with the latest updates. If you are an existing subscriber to Descent and have not replied yet to our enquiries concerning your deliveries, please make contact.
NOTE: Subscribers in Norway or Switzerland (which are outside the EU) should place your order on the Subscription International page or contact us first.
Chris Howes has been involved with underground photography since 1968, when he first photographed a cave during a school field course. Since then he has developed his own techniques for recording the unique world to be found below ground, and in 1981 was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society for his cave photography.
He has written widely on the subject in the photographic press, and won awards in competitions both in Britain and abroad. In 1987 he was expedition photographer for the prestigious Andros Project to explore the flooded Blue Hole caves of the Bahamas. Later that year his book Cave Photography, a practical guide to taking underground pictures, was published. In 1988 he became editor of the caver's magazine, Descent.
In addition, the last decade has been filled with researching To Photograph Darkness, a fascinating quest which has taken him across the world in search of photographs and primary sources of information until the subject has become a way of life. He currently lives in Cardiff, where he works as a biology teacher and freelance photographer.
Peter M. Hauer Award for significant speleological history research, 1993
No customer reviews for the moment.
Reference: SH-1167
A manual of underground and flash photography: cave photography for cavers, by Chris HowesEU customers must read the notes below before ordering
Reference: IB
A manual of underground and flash photography: cave photography for cavers, by Chris HowesEU customers please read the 'non-UK orders' notes below before ordering
Reference: GGO(def)
Jim Eyre's classic autobiography, part two, taking him from the caving expeditions of the 1960s through trials and tribulations to India in the 2000s. In it, Jim produced another masterpiece by turn both solemn and outrageously funny.This is a reduced price, single copy with a manufacturing defect
Reference: JBE2
More Journeys Beneath the Earth by David William GillEU customers please read the notes under the Non-UK Orders tab
Reference: DID
A manual of overhead environment diving in caves and mines, under ice and in wrecks, by Martyn Farr
Reference: LA
Alan Thomas' collection of cave diving stories of exploration, published under the Ina Books imprint.
Reference: CP
Cave Photography. A practical guide, by Chris HowesEU customers must read the notes below before ordering
Reference: IOAG-GGO
Jim Eyre was a legend in his own lifetime – a hard caver and ardent cave rescuer, but also a talented cartoonist and outrageous raconteur. His two-part autobiography comprising It's Only a Game and The Game Goes On is now available as a set with a considerable reduction in price.
Reference: NC-rp
Northern Caves by Sam Allshorn and Paul SwireThis copy is offered at a reduced price with slight damageEU customers please read the notes under the Non-UK Orders tab before ordering
Reference: n749
First International Meeting of Cave Photographers by Philippe Crochet and Michel Renda
Reference: NC
Northern Caves by Sam Allshorn and Paul SwireEU customers please read the notes under the Non-UK Orders tab before ordering
Reference: IOAG
Jim Eyre was a legend in his own lifetime – a hard caver and ardent cave rescuer, but also a talented cartoonist and outrageous raconteur. His two-part autobiography opens with It's Only a Game.
Reference: sh1156
The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook
Reference: GGO
Jim Eyre's classic autobiography, part two, taking him from the caving expeditions of the 1960s through trials and tribulations to India in the 2000s. In it, Jim produced another masterpiece by turn both solemn and outrageously funny.