The title roughly translates to the middle of a forest, with the plate printed in a delicate shade of green.

Christian Ferdinand Meisser: 1863-1929

The following biography of commercial photographer Christian Meisser is provided by the State Archives/Office for Culture in the Swiss Canton of Graubünden. The archive holds over 18,000 original negatives/prints by Meisser and his son Hans Leonhard Meisser (1889–1970):

Christian Ferdinand Meisser, born on May 31, 1863 in Maladers, died on April 2, 1929 in Zurich, grew up in Prättigau (Valzeina and Schuders) as the son of the pastor Leonhard Meisser. In 1884 he moved to Teufen, where he married Ida Schläpfer in 1887 and where his son Hans Leonhard Meisser was born in 1889. In 1891 he moved to Schiers, where he ran a cloth shop with his brother. It is believed that this is also where he began amateur photography. In and around Schiers he mainly photographed the landscape and the everyday life of the population.
Christian Meisser received several awards for his photographs during this time. Three medals were found in his estate: – 1895 Medal of Honor from the Society for the Promotion of Amateur Photography, Hamburg. – 1895 Honorary Prize for Outstanding Achievements, International Photographic Exhibition, Salzburg. – 1898 Second Prize from the Photographic Society of Zurich. At the end of the 19th century, he and his family moved to Chur, where he probably made photography his profession and began publishing postcards. This was followed by a stay in Como (1904–1907), during which he was the “director” of a collotype printing company. From 1907, Christian Meisser ran the “Christian Meisser Art Publishing House” in Zurich. His publishing house published books, brochures and postcards, with which he primarily documented the valleys and villages of Graubünden. After his death, his son Hans continued his father’s business.