Biography

Biography: 19th Century photographer Henry Taunt

Biography: 19th Century photographer Henry Taunt

Henry Taunt (1842–1922) was a professional photographer, author, publisher and entertainer based in Oxford, England. Taunt’s black-and-white photographs are mainly views of Oxford, Oxfordshire and adjoining counties. The River Thames is a prominent and recurrent theme in his work. From childhood he loved the river, boating on it and frequently on Trill Mill Stream, a Thames tributary in Oxford. At…
Biography: 19th Century photographer Julius Strauss

Biography: 19th Century photographer Julius Strauss

Julius Strauss (1857 – 1924), known professionally as J. C. Strauss, was an American photographer who was known as an internationally renowned craftsman and the most famous photographer in St. Louis, Missouri, at the turn of the 20th century. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, this penniless son of a Bavarian-born tailor left home and sneaked into St. Louis in 1876. He…
Biography: 19th Century Danish photographer Mary Steen

Biography: 19th Century Danish photographer Mary Steen

Mary Dorothea Frederica Steen (1856 – 1939) was a Danish photographer and feminist. At the age of 28, she opened a studio in Copenhagen where she specialized in indoor photography. In 1884, at the age of 28, she opened her own photographic studio on Amagertorv in the centre of Copenhagen. At the 1888 Nordic Exhibition she won a silver medal…
Biography: 19th Century photographer Albert Southworth

Biography: 19th Century photographer Albert Southworth

Albert Southworth (1811–1894) operated Southworth & Hawes daguerreotype studio with Josiah Johnson Hawes (1808–1901) from 1843 to 1863. Southworth was a student of Samuel F.B. Morse, who, in addition to his other more famous pursuits, was an avid daguerreotypist. The partnership’s studio, located on the top floor of a Boston building, had enormous skylights to allow in copious amounts of…
Biography: 19th Century East Asia photographer Felice Beato

Biography: 19th Century East Asia photographer Felice Beato

Felice Beato (1832 – 1909) was an Italian–British photographer. He was one of the first people to take photographs in East Asia and one of the first war photographers. Because of the existence of a number of photographs signed “Felice Antonio Beato” and “Felice A. Beato”, it was long assumed that there was one photographer who somehow photographed at the…
Biography: 19th Century Portrait photographer Richard Beard

Biography: 19th Century Portrait photographer Richard Beard

Richard Beard (1801 – 1885) was an English entrepreneur and photographer who vigorously protected his photographic business by litigation over his photographic patents and helped to establish professional photography in the UK. In 1839, Beard took an interest in the frenzy of public excitement over the first announcements of practical photographic processes by Daguerre and Talbot. In early 1840, Beard…
Biography: 19th Century pioneer of Cyanotype photography Anna Atkins

Biography: 19th Century pioneer of Cyanotype photography Anna Atkins

Anna Atkins (1799 – 1871) was an English botanist and photographer. Atkins learned directly from William Henry Fox Talbot about two of his inventions related to photography: the “photogenic drawing” technique (in which an object is placed on light-sensitized paper which is exposed to the sun to produce an image) and calotypes. Atkins was known to have had access to…
Biography: 19th Century Danish Daguerreotypist Mads Alstrup

Biography: 19th Century Danish Daguerreotypist Mads Alstrup

Mads Alstrup (1808-1876) was the first Danish portrait photographer with his own studio. In the summer of 1842, he moved to Copenhagen and set up a daguerreotype studio behind the Hercules Pavilion in the Rosenborg Gardens. In this popular area of the city, he had no difficulty in finding clients interested in having their portraits taken. From 1843 to 1848,…
Biography: 19th Century Portrait photographer David Wilkie Wynfield

Biography: 19th Century Portrait photographer David Wilkie Wynfield

David Wilkie Wynfield (1837–1887) was a British painter and photographer. Wynfield was distantly related to the Scottish artist David Wilkie, after whom he was named. Born in India, he was originally intended by his family for the priesthood, but instead chose art as a profession. He studied at Leigh’s art school in the 1850s and his first painting was accepted…
Biography: 19th Century Scottish photographer James Valentine

Biography: 19th Century Scottish photographer James Valentine

James Valentine (1815 – 1879) was a Scottish photographer. Valentine’s of Dundee produced Scottish topographical views from the 1860s. The business Valentine & Sons Ltd was founded in Dundee in 1851 by James Valentine. He added portrait photography to the activities of his established Dundee business, which had been based up to 1851 on the engraving, printing and supply of…
Biography: 19th Century photographer Ivan Standl

Biography: 19th Century photographer Ivan Standl

Ivan Standl (1832 – 1897) was one of the first professional photographers in Zagreb, present-day Croatia, known mostly for his award-winning documentary work. He is the author of the first Croatian photobook, published in 1870. Ivan Standl was of Czech descent and was born in Prague in 1832. It is not known for certain when he moved to Zagreb, but…
Biography: 19th Century pioneer Czech photographer Alexander Seik

Biography: 19th Century pioneer Czech photographer Alexander Seik

Alexander Seik (1824 – 1905), also known as Alex Sejk was a pioneer of Czech photography, one of foremost exponents of chromophotography, painter and mayor of city Tábor. In 1855, he moved to Tábor. His studio, where the Hotel Palcát now stands, became very popular. Most of his work was making portraits, mostly in Carte de visite format. He also…
Biography: 19th Century photographic studio Šechtl and Voseček

Biography: 19th Century photographic studio Šechtl and Voseček

The photographic studio Šechtl and Voseček was founded in Tábor (Bohemia) in 1888 by Ignác Šechtl, who accepted his assistant Jan Voseček as co-member of his photographic studio. The history of Šechtl & Voseček Studios goes back to 1863, when Ignác Schächtl (1840 – 1911) made the decision to leave his work as a clerk in Prague, to study the…
Biography: 19th Century Landscape photographer Charles Roscoe Savage

Biography: 19th Century Landscape photographer Charles Roscoe Savage

Charles Roscoe Savage (1832 – 1909) was a British-born landscape photographer who produced images of the American West. He is best known for his 1869 photographs of the linking of the first transcontinental railroad. In the spring of 1860, he traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah Territory with his family, where he established a photography studio with a partner, Marsena…
Biography: 19th Century photographer Herman Salzwedel

Biography: 19th Century photographer Herman Salzwedel

Herman Salzwedel was a photographer in Java, Dutch East Indies during the late 19th century. In May 1877, Salzwedel arrived in Batavia, Dutch East Indies via Singapore. He founded the firm Salzwedel and from March 1878 worked for a year with the more experienced Van Kinsbergen in the photographic studio Kinsbergen & Salzwedel in Batavia. On May 8, 1879 Salzwedel…
Biography: 19th Century Swiss photographer Pierre Rossier

Biography: 19th Century Swiss photographer Pierre Rossier

Pierre Joseph Rossier (1829 – 1898) was a pioneering Swiss photographer whose albumen photographs, which include stereographs and cartes-de-visite, comprise portraits, cityscapes, and landscapes. He was long thought to be from France and while he was in Japan he was even referred to as an “Englishman”; however, recent research has revealed that Rossier was Swiss, born in Grandsivaz, a small…
Biography: 19th Century Daguerreotype Portrait photographer Marcus Aurelius Root

Biography: 19th Century Daguerreotype Portrait photographer Marcus Aurelius Root

Marcus Aurelius Root (1808–1888) was a writing teacher and photographer. He was born in Granville, Ohio and died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On 20 June 1846, he bought John Jabez Edwin Mayall’s Chestnut Street photography studio that was in the same building as Root’s residence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Root had success as a daguerreotypist working with his brother, Samuel Root. Marcus…
Biography: 19th Century photographer Elizabeth Pulman

Biography: 19th Century photographer Elizabeth Pulman

Elizabeth Pulman (1836–1900) was a British-born New Zealand photographer. She was regarded as being the country’s first female professional photographer. She owned a photographic studio in Auckland along with her husband George Pulman. Elizabeth married John Blackman, a widower and reporter, on 14 June 1875, at the West Tamaki Presbyterian Church. They had one son. Originally from Surrey, England, Blackman…
Biography: 19th Century photographer Giuseppe Primoli

Biography: 19th Century photographer Giuseppe Primoli

Giuseppe Primoli (1851 – 1927) was an Italian photographer. He lived in Paris from 1853 to 1870. He befriended writers and artists both in Italy and France, and was host to Guy de Maupassant, Paul Bourget, Alexandre Dumas fils, Sarah Bernhardt and others in Palazzo Primoli in Rome. In 1901 he became the sole owner of the palazzo, which he…
Biography: 19th Century pioneer photographer Johann Pucher

Biography: 19th Century pioneer photographer Johann Pucher

Johann Pucher (1814-1864) was a Slovene photographer who invented an unusual process for making photographs on glass. As a schoolchild, Pucher was interested in art, languages, and the natural sciences, especially chemistry and physics. He wanted to study art, but obeyed his mother’s wish and became a Catholic priest. However, he continued to experiment in photography, art, and music. When…