Shot in Alabama by Frances Osborn Robb is a visual and textual narrative of Alabama's photographic history from 1839 to 1941. It describes the phenomenon of photography as practiced in Alabama as a major cultural force, paying close attention to the particular contexts from which each image emerges and the fragments of microhistory that each image documents.

Presented chronologically--from the very first photograph ever taken in the state to the appearance of cameras as commonplace possessions in mid-twentieth-century households--Robb draws into sharp relief the eras of...