A young boy looks out onto a body of water, possibly San Francisco Bay, where boats are moored and a sailboat can be seen passing through the limbs of two trees along upper margin of photograph.

Paul Douglas Anderson, 1887-1964, was an American living and working in San Francisco, California in the early 20th Century. He  was an associate editor of Camera Craft magazine beginning in May, 1923 & became editor-in-chief by January, 1924, continuing through the July issue. He was replaced by Sigismund Blumann (1872-1956) the following month. Active in photography between 1910-1940’s, he was a member of the Camera Pictorialists of Los Angeles and Pictorial Photographers of America. This print bears his signature in graphite within the lower right corner of a hand-ruled border drawn on the primary mount which has been cut.

The following web background on Anderson’s exhibition history is from an unknown source. We are happy to update or attribute:

Between 1918 and 1935 he participated in over 30 salons, including exhibiting three photographs in the Fifth International Exhibition of Pictorial Photography at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in 1928. His work is held in the collections of the Oakland Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

By 1937, Anderson was teaching photography, with this notice appearing in the February issue of The Educational Screen, a Chicago-based journal “devoted exclusively to the visual idea in education” :

A University of California Extension class in School Photography opened in San Francisco Thursday, January 28th. P. Douglas Anderson, Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, is conducting the course. It consists of a complete outline of the use of cameras, study of the practical application of the camera to outdoor work, action photography, interior photography, landscape and field photography, the making of lantern and film slides, film developing, contact printing, filters, and other technical features. (p. 71)

print notes recto: signed in graphite at lower right of mount: P. Douglas Anderson

verso: purple/bluish ink stamp for:

Camera Study By
P. Douglas Anderson
753- 8th Avenue
San Francisco, California

63 written in graphite along lower margin

Title of work supplied by this archive.