Chaining The Sun

A major nineteenth-century photographer’s work is rediscovered.



Jeremiah Gurney was a leading portrait photographer working in New York City during the second half of the nineteenth century. Celebrated in his time, his work has since been overshadowed by the reputation of his competitor Mathew Brady. Now, for the first time since his death a hundred years ago, Gurney’s accomplishments are being brought to light. Produced in conjunction with an exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, this volume covers Gurney’s entire fifty-year photographic career.





Gurney was declared the country’s leading portraitist in 1853 when he won the Anthony Pitcher, the first and most important American photography prize. He made pictures in every major nineteenth-century photographic medium and format beginning with the daguerreotype, capturing the images of not only ordinary men and women but also famous American and English figures such as the Prince of Wales, Charles Dickens, and Mark Twain. Chaining the Sun is a fascinating look at the role photography played in the world of nineteenth-century United States, both as a commercial enterprise and as an index of a rapidly changing society.