Mysterious and unusual is the combination of the portrait of a young woman with the base of a marble bust. It plays with the idea of immortalising beauty and youth in art. The unwanted area of each image on two glass negatives, one of the portrait and one of the bust, was removed and then the two exposed together. Additionally, a small amount of retouching can be seen on the paper print. The authorship of the picture is not absolutely certain, but it was created within the ambit of the successful Viennese portrait photographer Nikolaus Stockmann.
Albumen paper, retouched
Stiegler Collection, acquired 2022 with funds from the Museumsstiftung Baden-Württemberg
Tamamura Kōzaburō ran a successful photography studio in Tokyo’s Asakusa entertainment district before moving to Yokohama in 1881. Kōzaburō benefitted from the opening up of Japan as he was able to offer travellers images of the country and its inhabitants that were considered particularly authentic in other European countries. The delicate, cool colours of his portrait of a young woman in traditional dress and wooden sandals presents a metaphor of winter.
Albumen paper, hand coloured
Stiegler Collection, acquired 2022 with funds from the Museumsstiftung Baden-Württemberg
The photographer, who was from Frankfurt on Main, had been working successfully in Naples since 1857. He had made a name for himself with his photographs of the antiquities in Pompeii as well as of the victims of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1779. When molten lava shot up into the sky from its crater again in April 1872, Giorgio Sommer succeeded in taking an almost iconic series of photographs of the natural spectacle. He took photographs every half hour from a boat in the Gulf of Naples. The picture shown here oscillates between horror at the forces of nature and amazement at its sublimity.
Albumen paper
Stiegler Collection, acquired 2022 with funds from the Museumsstiftung Baden-Württemberg
Due to their rarity, Japanese ambrotypes are sought-after testimonies of the Meiji period. In contrast to the photographic souvenir industry aimed at foreign customers, photographs like this double portrait were created by Japanese photographers for Japanese families. Whereas the mother is in sharp focus, the child is blurred — a result of the relatively long exposure time. Each ambrotype is unique and captured directly on glass, which was relatively expensive at the time. The beautiful pale coloured case made of robust kiri wood not only frames the image, it also protects the photograph from breakage, insects, and, not least, the humid climate.
Ambrotype in a kiri (Paulownia) wood case
Stiegler Collection, acquired 2022 with funds from the Museumsstiftung Baden-Württemberg
The photographer stages the alpinists very artistically as a play of black and white. The vertical format supports the notion of a steep and dangerous crevasse, while the glaring sunlight blinds the men. Photography pioneer Adolphe Braun also put in a great deal of effort to get this shot: he not only had to climb the glacier, he also had to carry a large camera plus the plates and chemicals needed to take the picture. The former designer of fabric patterns had a sure sense of the abstract, two-dimensional appeal of this view.
Albumen paper
Stiegler Collection, acquired 2022 with funds from the Museumsstiftung Baden-Württemberg
Cologne Cathedral had remained incomplete since 1530. It was not until 1814, when French troops withdrew from the Rhineland, that the cathedral was declared a national monument which must be completed. From 1842 to 1880, the extensive construction work on what was then the tallest building in the world was captured at all stages by photographers from Cologne, as well as by tourists. This photograph was either taken or acquired by a British traveller in 1875, and shows the state of the prominent west facade, at that time still surrounded by a dense residential area.
Albumen paper
Stiegler Collection, acquired in 2022 with funds from the Museumsstiftung Baden-Württemberg
Here, a prize-winning beef tenderloin is staged so that it fills the entire sheet of paper: small wooden wedges are used to make it stand upright, while a tape measure documents its size. We see it slightly from the top and perfectly illuminated. The Berlin court photographer Albert Schwartz had been commissioned to capture examples of perfect cuts of meat as guidance for butchers at the 1895 fattened cattle exhibition. This type of image was used in vocational training and it also became part of the beginning industrial production and processing of meat in the modern era.
Albumen paper
Stiegler Collection, acquired 2022 with funds from the Museum Foundation Baden-Württemberg
In 1877, in honour of General Berthaut, the acting Minister of War of France, the typical military wagons of the French army were recorded in a documentary photo series and printed in a comparatively low print run. This photograph shows a monumentally staged wooden telegraph wagon with cables on its side, the then ultra-modern means of communication, which was pulled by horses. Traditional mobility and innovative technology meet directly here.
Albumen paper
Stiegler Collection, acquired 2022 with funds from the Museumsstiftung Baden-Württemberg
In this early photograph, the Acropolis of Athens as an ancient city fortress sits in state on its rock of temples. The columns of the Parthenon Temple are clearly visible, and in the foreground on the right, they find a counterpart in the ancient Temple of Zeus. The photograph was probably taken by Félix Bonfils, a photographer who was active mainly in the Middle East and who had considerable experience with topographies and historical sites. Photographs like this one were popular souvenirs with tourists to Greece. The reddish-brown colour of the photograph enhances the atmospheric effect of its subject.
Albumen paper, reddish brown toned
Stiegler Collection, acquired 2022 with funds from the Museumsstiftung Baden-Württemberg
As early as the 1840s, immediately after photographic processes became public knowledge, photographs of criminals were added to police files. However, the photographs taken for identification purposes were only gradually standardised. By 1900, when these photographs of Mr. Blache were taken, a side and a frontal view of the face had become standard — clearly lit and with no expression on the sitter’s face. Recommended by Alphonse Berthillon, this minimum of effort served to identify a person beyond doubt. Why no fingerprints are included on this card (already common practice) is not known.
Albumen paper
Stiegler Collection, acquired in 2022 with funds from the Museumsstiftung Baden-Württemberg.