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Memento Moments: Evidence of Charles Andrew Hellmuth

Jun 2025 | Advertising, New Additions, Painters|Photographers, Publishing

“They were up in the attic of the house in an old art box.”…

Skulls: Diptych: 1910, graphite on paper, Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945. L: “Human Skull, Profile View”: 25.8 x 29.3 cm, R: “Human Skull, Frontal View”: 28.5 x 25.0 cm. Both laid down on oversized paper sheet: 37.9 x 61.5 cm. These two finely rendered views of a human skull were completed by the artist in his final year as an art student at the prestigious Art Academy of Cincinnati, then under the management of the Cincinnati Museum Association. From: PhotoSeed Archive

The above quote is a common refrain I hear when inquiring about artistic provenance. Or basement. But hardly ever: “They were (for our purpose: old photographs) hanging on the living room wall”. Of course, this particular artist ⎯ Charles A. Hellmuth (1887-1945)⎯ the subject of today’s post, was one of the lucky ones. His son, Joseph Foote Hellmuth, made the wise decision to hold on to a few choice remnants of his father’s artistic legacy before age forced his hand.

L: Self-Portrait? This charcoal |graphite on paper profile portrait of a young man by American artist Charles A. Hellmuth is dated 1911 (16 1/2″w x 22 1/2″h) and was described by its seller as a self-portrait of the artist. From: Private Collection. R: At twenty five years of age, class artist Charles A. Hellmuth is shown the year he graduated in 1912 from East Night High School, Cincinnati, OH. Along with this halftone photograph from The Rostrum, the school yearbook, were these insights: “Our able artist formerly attended Chillicothe High School, and entered our ranks in 1911. We were indeed very fortunate to have him with us, for his skill in art and valuable suggestions have aided us materially in making this book a success. He has always been recognized as a diligent and thoughtful student, and we are proud to claim him. We find him a very considerate and ever willing fellow, who has never failed us when called upon.” Source: web

No bother. Rescue is an archive speciality. Concerning examples of Hellmuth’s artwork and photographs I was able to procure in 2012, the online dealer from a northwest Rochester, N.Y. suburb I purchased them from added this little nugget after explaining his business was estate clean outs:

Study of Miss A.”, Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945, 1921, gelatin silver print: 24.4 x 19.3 cm on mounts: 26.7 x 20.4 | 42.9 x 35.5 cm. This figure study of a young woman clutching a flower bloom from a vase was entered in the inaugural October, 1921 exhibition of the Art Center, Inc., based in New York City. The purpose of this collective organization or  movement was to “advance the Decorative Crafts and the Industrial and Graphic Arts of America” according to a pasted exhibition label on mount verso. From: PhotoSeed Archive

“Many of the photos in the house were taken by the real estate agent before we got there !! I was told she sold them to the local museum for ALOT of $$$ !! I was pretty upset.”

L: Cover Design: “Art Academy of Cincinnati Catalogue, 1909”, two-color woodcut on laid paper. At this time, the faculty chairman of the academy was Frank Duveneck, (1848-1919) an important American artist known to Whistler and John Singer Sargent. Source: Web. R: “Artists Garret”, Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945, 1910, pen & ink drawing on illustration board, 22.8 x 21.0 | 35.4 x 31.2 cm. With drawings and paintings decorating the background wall; along with the essentials of bare-bones living- a large steamer trunk, kerosene heater and rocking chair- it might seem reasonable the artist used his own living space as the subject of this drawing, executed in the final year he attended the prestigious Art Academy of Cincinnati. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Certainly a great story, but I’m more inclined to believe the dealer was just trying to tell me what he thought I wanted to hear. After all, Charles Hellmuth is a complete unknown. Know any museums purchasing anonymous works off the street for big money? Do tell. (me) I should know, I’ve been fortunate to sell a few choice works from PhotoSeed to several important American museums and institutions, as well as internationally, and always extend our invitation to those overseeing collections and other informed collectors seeking original material.

Man with cane Walking away from Building”, Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945, 1905, unmounted charcoal drawing on laid paper watermarked MICHALLET, 27.5 x 40.3 cm. This is an early drawing study executed by the artist in his first full year attending the prestigious Art Academy of Cincinnati. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Speaking of acquisitions, the process is exacting. Museum registrars are fastidious, and endowed money for rare photographs simply does not grow on trees- especially since the current unfortunate trends include deaccessioning works in order to provide collections the ability to keep the electricity on and front doors open. Committed benefactors, promised gifts and bequests make up the bulk of new work entering museums.

L: “Profile of Older Gentleman with Beard”,Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945, (unsigned) dated “Sept. 1910”, unmounted charcoal drawing on laid paper, 42.8 x 34.0 cm. R: “Portrait of Older Woman”, Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945, ca. 1910, charcoal drawing on laid paper tipped to backing board, 42.8 x 34.0 cm. These two fine drawings may very well depict the artist’s own parents, who each would have been around 60 years of age. Joseph Hellmuth Jr. (1850-1939) was a commercial painting contractor and spouse Anna Mary Rudman Hellmuth (1855-1940) was a homemaker. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Silhouette”, Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945, 1923, multiple gum-bichromate print on laid paper, 24.5 x 19.4 cm on mount: 35.5 x 27.9 cm & window matting: 50.8 x 40.6 cm. This exhibition print shows a young girl with hair bow silhouetted against an interior window. Perhaps dating to as early as 1920, it was exhibited in the 1923 Pittsburgh Salon as well as the International Salon hosted by the Pictorial Photographers of America in New York City, May, 1923. From: PhotoSeed Archive

But in the meantime, stories and lives can be retold- often for the first time, via the rescuing process- the heck with that ol’ dustbin of history notion! The pollination of photographers embracing the easel and the somewhat less common trend of artists embracing the camera concerns the subject of this post. Our artist, Charles Hellmuth, I would discover, was someone who might be called a journeyman artist. His interest in amateur photography, as it turned out, was only a short obsession: probably less than five years, from 1920-25.

When the Days Grow Long”, Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945, 1912, unmounted ink drawing on oversized paper, 38.2 x 51.5 cm. This work was published in 1912 as a full page illustration in the artist’s class yearbook, The Rostrum, for East Night High School, Cincinnati, OH. Hellmuth was the class artist and earned an academic diploma when graduating from the school when he was 25 years old. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Born in northern Ohio in 1887 to first-generation parents, (his grandparents had immigrated from Germany to the US) Charles was undoubtedly influenced by his own father’s profession from a young age- that of commercial painting contractor. So think houses instead of canvases. With however the certain paternal decree that a skilled trade was necessary in order to support his future self and family, (Charles had five other siblings) the completion of his primary education for the younger Hellmuth at first did not lead to advanced schooling, at least not right away.

Lower Broadway N.Y. City”, Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945, ca. 1920, mounted bromoil print, 32.1 x 20.3  | 38.8 x 27.9 cm. In this winter scene showing Lower Broadway in New York City, the former Singer Building at center towers above all. For one year, 1908-1909, the Singer was the tallest building in the world at 612′. The former world headquarters of the Singer Sewing machine company, it was designed by architect Ernest Flagg. (1857-1947) Hellmuth was a resident of the city when he took this view, living at 338 W. 22nd St. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Instead, the 17 year old somehow discovered he possessed actual artistic talent. The jackpot? In late 1904, he matriculated at the prestigious Art Academy of Cincinnati under their new faculty chairman Frank Duveneck, (1848-1919) an important American artist in his own right known to Whistler and John Singer Sargent.

Homestead in a Snowy Landscape”, Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945, 1922, oil on unstretched canvas, 34.4 x 44.5 cm (overall). A rare surviving example of a painting by the artist. It’s unknown how prolific he was in creating works such as this, although he most likely used the medium of oil paint for some of the poster work he did for the commercial lithography firms he worked for. In 1918, he became a member of The Society of Independent Artists and like hundreds of others, paid a $6.00 entry fee to have several works displayed in their 2nd annual exhibition. From: PhotoSeed Archive

For the six years he attended the Cincinnati academy, we are fortunate to be able to share some of the young artists original student drawings. The diptych of human skulls leading off this post- a common art school drawing assignment, are finely rendered, as are two individual portraits of an older gentleman and woman who may well be Hellmuth’s own parents. With the knowledge he would eventually immerse himself by the early 1920’s with amateur photography, these works are a wonderful reference for his obvious skill set in embracing the very different mechanical aspects of the camera and chemical knowledge requirements of the darkroom.

But our artist was not done with schooling. Even though his occupation was listed as artist for the 1910 Cincinnati City Directory, he chose to attend Chillicothe High School in the town he was born the same year and then enrolled in 1911 as a night student at East Night High School in Cincinnati. This would give him the necessary diploma required to open the employment doors more easily for one primarily schooled in the art trade. When he finally graduated high school, at the ripe age of 25, the editors of the class yearbook said of him:

Man with Mustache”, Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945, ca. 1920-25, mounted gelatin silver print, 24.0 x 19.5 | 26.5 x 20.3 | 43.2 x 35.6 cm. A fine example of the artist’s portrait work, the subject bears a passing resemblance to the artist himself. Although lacking the NY attribution he sometimes included with his signature, its still most likely from the period he lived their while being an active member of the Pictorial Photographers of America. From: PhotoSeed Archive

“We were indeed very fortunate to have him with us, for his skill in art and valuable suggestions have aided us materially in making this book a success. He has always been recognized as a diligent and thoughtful student, and we are proud to claim him.”

Charles A. Hellmuth worked as a commercial artist and lithographer for ACME Litho, from as early as 1917 to the mid 1920’s, and went on to work for Morgan Litho in Cleveland after this period. No extant posters or other advertising material produced by Acme or Morgan credited to the artist are known. L: “Felix the Cat Laughs it Off”, a 1926 animated short by Acme. M: closeup of ACME logo on ca. 1921 silent film poster “Franklyn Farnum” by Canyon Pictures Corp. R: “Husbands for Rent” Acme poster for 1927 romcom featuring Owen Moore and Helene Costello. From the web: “Acme Litho Company was initially used by Fox’s Box Office Attractions and Pathé (studios) in the teens. Acme also worked for Educational Film Distributors.” Source credits for all: Web

Ambitious, but apparently not of great health, (he claimed a medical deferment for a heart condition on his WWI draft registration) he eventually made a home in New York City, working as an artist and lithographer for the Acme Litho Company. It was in New York in the early 20’s that the artist fully embraced amateur photography, winning prizes and having his work-mainly bromoils- exhibited in the salons of the Pictorial Photographers of America, of which he was a member.

At the Market”, Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945, ca. 1920-25, mounted bromoil print, 19.8 x 28.2 | 32.2 x 40.3 cm with overmatt: 51.0 x 40.7 cm. A documentary image most likely taken in New York City shows a woman with oversized sun bonnet clutching her basket while eyeing grapes hanging in an outdoor produce market. The mount verso carries the white label for Member Pictorial Photographers of America and the artist’s NY address: 329 W. 22nd St. From: PhotoSeed Archive

It would have been interesting had Hellmuth stuck with photography longer, but with his marriage in 1926 and birth of his son Joseph in 1928, his free time was taken over more by family priorities. By 1930, they were back in his home state of Ohio where he would continue working as a lithographer and poster artist for Morgan Litho in Cleveland, a company that had bought out his former employer Acme.

Fellow Students and Collaborators: “A Good Joke”, Glen Tracy, American, 1883-1956, 1943, unmounted lithograph on paper, 4th state, 37.2 x 31.0 cm. Glen Tracy and Charles Hellmuth were fellow students at the Art Academy of Cincinnati in the first decade of the 20th Century, becoming lifelong friends. Tracy also became an instructor in Preparatory Drawing, and Painting in Oil and Water Colors in 1909 at the Academy. This Tracy lithograph was turned into a lithograph by Hellmuth while he worked at Morgan Litho in Cleveland in the early 1940’s. Hellmuth has added his printing notes in graphite to the bottom margin and titled the work in his own hand: A Good Joke | -work added and work taken out – just printed 4th edition of this one yesterday- many changes having been made.  From: PhotoSeed Archive

Apparently, with future evidence to be determined, Hellmuth never received artistic credit for the many posters, broadsides and other advertising material published by Acme and Morgan– a standard industry practice for the hundreds of anonymous artists plying their trade who would never see a byline working for these companies. In contrast, his photographs- beautifully composed with the hallmarks of a subtle palette of highlights and shadows enhanced by the bromoil process- would earn the public’s recognition in his lifetime.

Cornwall on the Hudson”, Charles A. Hellmuth, American, 1887-1945, 1923, mounted bromoil print, 17.4 x 23.7 | 29.5 x 36.5 cm. Sailboats on the Hudson River can be seen in the distance in this Summertime view most likely taken in 1922. It  received an honorable mention in a monthly camera contest sponsored and published by Shadowland magazine for their February, 1923 issue. Judges comments included with the reproduction: “This is well composed with a pictorial quality“. From: PhotoSeed Archive

This balance of a career trade and amateur craft surely satisfied his artistic drive, and reason enough his proud son chose to preserve the evidence of his father’s career- squirreling it within an old art box in the attic of his Rochester, N.Y. home. Memento memories rescued and showcased here for your consideration and delight.

Historical Biography: Charles Andrew Hellmuth  1887-1945

1887: Born on January 17th in Chillicothe, OH to father Joseph Hellmuth Jr. ,(1850-1939) a commercial painting contractor, and mother Anna Mary Rudman Hellmuth, (1855-1940) a homemaker.

1904-1910: Seeking a trade, he enrolls in late 1904 at the age of 17 at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, then under the management of the Cincinnati Museum Association. 

1907: Student living in Cincinnati and attending Art Academy of Cincinnati. (1907 Directory)

1910: In his last year at the Academy, he lists himself as an Artist living at 2153 Fulton Ave., Cincinnati. (1910 Directory)

-Enrolls in Chillicothe High School in the Ohio town he was born.

1911: Perhaps desiring to be closer to the city of Cincinnati where he earned his art diploma and to be closer with friends and professional acquaintances, he matriculates at East Night High School in Cincinnati, OH, living at 1927 Auburn Ave. in Mt. Auburn, OH. As its name implied, East Night was a night school, where students worked during the day and attended class at night. Although born in Chillicothe, his first-generation parents- also born in Chillicothe, whose parents both immigrated from Germany- had a large family of six children to support. Because of these family obligations, dedicated students such as Hellmuth graduated older. At East Night, many graduates took courses in Bookkeeping and Stenography- trades with good career outcomes. Additional information from Fulshear Books, Whiting Texas: “Some history on East Night High School from the Withrow High School Alumni Association site: “East Night High School was in existence from 1911-1937 and classes were held in the East High School building and eventually the Withrow High School building. It was intended for students that could not attend day classes due to necessary working conditions, family care concerns or for any reason that daytime classes were not an option for individuals who wanted a high school education.”

1912: Graduates from East Night High School on May 24, listed as the Class Artist. He had participated in the school’s Oratorical Contest and gave the speech: “The Value of Art Culture.” From The Rostrum: school yearbook: “Our able artist formerly attended Chillicothe High School, and entered our ranks in 1911. We were indeed very fortunate to have him with us, for his skill in art and valuable suggestions have aided us materially in making this book a success. He has always been recognized as a diligent and thoughtful student, and we are proud to claim him. We find him a very considerate and ever willing fellow, who has never failed us when called upon.”

-Its unknown where and in what capacity Hellmuth worked during this period. One idea, subject to research, was that he was employed at one of the many potteries in Cincinnati. Known as “the cradle of American art pottery”, a good friend of the artist, Albert F. Pons, (1888-1971) had worked in the city as an artist for Rookwood Pottery from 1904 through 1911, and was best man at Hellmuth’s 1926 wedding.

 1917: Registers for WWI draft. His occupation is listed as a commercial lithographer, working for the Acme Litho Company at 601 W. 47th St., N.Y.C. He claims an exemption for service because of heart trouble on his June 5th registration card, describing himself with grey eyes, brown hair, 6′ tall and of medium build.

1918: He becomes a member of The Society of Independent Artists: exhibiting several works in the 2nd annual exhibition. His home address listed as 331 W. 55th St., NYC. Two works displayed: #919: Still Life & #920: Morning Shadows.

1920-25: Becomes a member of the Pictorial Photographers of America, exhibiting in their annual salons.

– Home address is 338 W. 22nd St., NYC.

1921: Exhibits photograph #62 “Study”at Art Center in NYC.

1922: In February, he wins first and second prizes in Class C for a contest sponsored by Kodakery: A Journal for Amateur Photographers for their contest which closed Dec. 1, 1921.

– His photograph, “A Summer Idyll” awarded honorable mention and exhibited at the Worcester, (MA) Art Museum from May 14 – June 11 as part of an exhibition of prize-winning prints organized by the journal American Photography for their second annual contest and brought to Worcester by the Worcester Camera Club.

1926: Marriage on May 8th to Alice K. Foote (1896-1989) after having moved to 79 Beverly St. in Rochester, in upstate, N.Y. Occupation on license listed as artist. His best man was Albert F. Pons of Cleveland. Pons, 1888-1971, who had been an artist for Rookwood Pottery in Cincinatti from 1904 through 1911.

1928: Now living in Cleveland, Ohio as listed in The Art Digest for Mid-May. He may have accepted a job at Morgan Lithograph Corp., a company that bought Acme Litho. (see 1940)

A son, Joseph Foote Hellmuth, born March 1.

1930: U.S. Census lists him as a lithographic artist living at 1350 W. 102nd St., Cleveland, OH.

1940: Registers for WWII draft. He continues to be a commercial lithographer, working for Morgan Lithograph Corp. located at E. 17th and Payne Ave. in Cleveland. His home address is 1350 W. 102nd St., Cleveland, OH.

– Listed occupation on U.S. Census is poster artist for a Lithographic Company.

1945: Passes away on February 8th in Cleveland at 58 years of age.

American Crucible

Apr 2025 | Documentary Photography, New Additions, Publishing, Unknown Photographers

Members of the Acton Minute Men, reenactors in the annual Isaac Davis Trail March, fire a volley over the side of The Old North Bridge in Concord, MA: the start of the American Revolution on April 19, 1775. This year marks the 250 anniversary of what is known as “The Shot Heard Round the World.” David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive

Concord Hymn

“By the Rude Bridge That

Arched the Flood,

Their Flag to April’s

Breeze Unfurled,

Here Once the Embattled

Farmers Stood,

And Fired the Shot Heard

Round the World.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson  1837

“Flag Raising on New Flag-Staff Apr. 19, 1906”, 1906, album-mounted platinum print, Alfred Wayland Cutting, American 1860-1935, 15.3 x 19.5 | 27.8 x 34.5 cm. On the Wayland, MA town common, residents watch the dedication of a new town flag pole: the date occurring on April 19th, an important date in American history commemorating “The Shot Heard Round the World.” From: PhotoSeed Archive

Bad luck. At least for one distant relation. On official battle cry orders, the second soldier to die on April 19, 1775— the very moment which started the American Revolutionary War—was my direct cousin, private Abner Hosmer, not quite 21 years old, a member of the Acton, MA Minute Men.

At left, a cow powder horn recovered from the Old North Bridge battle is now a centerpiece of a display on Concord’s role in the American Revolution at the Concord Museum. A descriptive panel states: “Abner Hosmer loaded his musket with gunpowder from this horn at the North Bridge on the morning of April 19, 1775, but was killed before he had a chance to pull the trigger.” Right: this bloodied hatband belonging to Private Abner Hosmer, an Acton Minute Man, was also recovered at the bridge site. It is now on display at the Acton Memorial Library. Abner’s father, Jonathan, in a letter written just ten days earlier, had predicted that if the (British) Regulars turned out, “there will be Bloody work.” Hosmer was a direct descendent of this site owner. David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive

Today, April 19, 2025, we, now the American nation, pay tribute to his fellow Massachusetts townsfolk—those approximately 400 colonial soldiers who went into battle against 96 British Regulars at the Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts. It was their bravery that began the epic conquest and eventual success to cast off their English king in becoming a new nation and free republic.

Detail: “Bloody Butchery, by the British Troops”, 40 coffins representing some of the first provincial soldiers killed in fighting against British troops from towns including Concord, Acton, (Captain Isaac Davis, Abner Hosmer and James Hayward) Sudbury, Charlestown, Salem, Woburn, Cambridge, Brookline, Medford, Lynn and Danvers make up the top portion of this broadside. Printed in letterpress by the Essex (MA) Gazette only five days after the April 19, 1775 battle, subsequent editions of the broadsheet added more coffins representing lives lost in the ongoing war. The work is framed and on display at the Concord Museum. David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive

The last time I visited Concord was in my childhood. The Hosmer line sprouts from my maternal side, and I’m sure my mom was her usual stern yet patient New England self in trying to explain the significance of our ancestor and what happened in this place. But no. I remember the bridge and perhaps a vague memory of someone dressed in a tricorn hat, but that is all that registers now, thinking back. But 50 years forward to the present? A load of difference.

And, as one of those descendants, I will not mince words now. I’m scared for our country and ashamed of what is happening in the name of it. But what I saw in Concord yesterday was downright beautiful.

With permanent Photography not invented yet in 1775, the Concord Museum features a variety of media, including a large 24-hour digital timeline on an expansive battle and route map showing the advance of British troops marching from Boston to Concord. This detail from a 3d diorama of the battle at the Old North Bridge, however old school, is still visceral and gets the point across: casualties on the provincial side. Two British soldiers were also killed at the bridge, their bodies interred nearby. David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive

 

In what has become a long-time annual tradition, a group of Acton, MA and other local town residents gather and march behind the Minute Men bearing that old town’s name: the annual Isaac Davis Trail March. The Acton group are American Revolutionary War reenactors who celebrate that fateful day by marching at dawn nearly seven miles to the Old North Bridge in Concord. They are led by a gentleman playing the role of Captain Isaac Davis, “the leader of the Acton Minute Company who sounded the alarm shots to rally his men to come to his house and prepare to head off for Concord,” according to the company’s website.

“American Revolutionary War Reenactors: Wayland, MA”, 1906, album-mounted platinum print, Alfred Wayland Cutting, American 1860-1935, 14.2 x 19.0 | 27.8 x 34.5 cm. Pride and patriotism are on display as three columns of troops parade off the town common in Wayland, MA: perhaps on the July 4th holiday. An automobile can be seen making up the rear. From: PhotoSeed Archive

 

This year, due to events surrounding Concord’s direct 250th anniversary role in “The Shot Heard Round the World,” and the massive amount of people expected on town streets, many of which will be closed due to a parade and other Patriot Day Weekend events, the Acton company made the decision to do the trail march a day early.

Overlooking from the rear at the conclusion of the April 19th Issac Davis Trail March at Concord’s Old North Bridge is the iconic Minute Man bronze statue depicting Davis by American sculptor Daniel Chester French. The large group that marched behind the Acton Minute Men look on at center as they are thanked for their nearly seven mile journey. The sculpture was unveiled for the Centennial of the battle on April 19, 1875. My aunt Jane described the work in 2009: “By definition, a minuteman can be ready to fight “in a minute”: he hears the alarm, grabs his musket from the farmhouse wall, and leaves his farm chores for battle. This statue can be Abner, in our imagination, or any other soldier in the Revolution, standing with his left foot forward, his right foot poised to take a step while holding his musket on his right hip. He wears simple, everyday clothes, and boots, and a hat with a jaunty, upturned brim, and he gazes straight ahead.” David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive

“Two Drummers & Fifer: Wayland, MA”, 1906, album-mounted platinum print, Alfred Wayland Cutting, American 1860-1935, 13.2 x 14.0 | 27.8 x 34.5 cm. Pride and patriotism are on display as two drummers and a fifer keep the past alive- perhaps with a spirited rendition of The White Cockade March, on the Wayland town common. Fifteen-year-old Luther Blanchard was the name of the fifer that day, and is reported to have been the first to be grazed by a bullet on his side by a British Regular: the “First Shot?” The gathering was perhaps part of the town’s July 4th holiday. From: PhotoSeed Archive

So let me end with this, while getting back to that “beautiful” statement thing I mentioned a few lines ago. The 100 or so townsfolk following along yesterday—to my eye—were from all walks of life, nationalities and genders, along with a Boy Scout troop thrown in for good measure. Basically, the American Melting Pot, in real life, practicing their Constitutionally-protected right to assemble while keeping in marching step to the flute and drummer ahead of them playing a spirited rendition of the White Cockade, the traditional Scottish folk song. And, as luck would have it, at the conclusion of several musket volleys over the Old North Bridge, I ran into a fellow Hosmer descendant from another line of the family. A hug for both of us, and not bad luck at all 250 years later.

Nach der Natur: Grand Album of European Pictorialism

Oct 2024 | Archive Highlights, Exhibitions, Fashion Photography, Highlights from the Archive, Publishing, Significant Portfolios

A little over seven years ago, this archive finally acquired the monumental European portfolio Nach der Natur, (After Nature) published in Berlin in early 1897.

Detail: Gold-Stamped Cover title for Portfolio “Nach der Natur”. Photographische Gesellschaft in Berlin, 1897: 49.8 x 37.0 x 2.2 cm. Blue fabric cloth over boards. Translated: AFTER ◦ NATURE PHOTOGRAVURES AFTER ◦ ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS ◦ BY AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHERS PUBLISHED ◦ BY THE PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY BERLIN. . With Forward by Franz Goerke & essay by Richard Stettiner. The folio consists of 32 hand-pulled photogravures: 25 individual plates and a further 7 reproduced within the letterpress. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Composed of 32 sumptuous hand-pulled photogravure plates, I learned it was considered a cornerstone to any important collection of artistic photography when first reading about it almost 25 years ago. And, as persistence can sometimes pay off, a Dresden antiquarian bookseller listed the folio, along with other titles, appearing in my inbox in March of 2017. The portfolio itself is the artistic historical record for Berlin’s 1896 Inter­national Exhibition of Amateur Photography (Internationalen Ausstellung für Amateur-Photographie) held in the Reichstag building, the German government’s legislative headquarters, which had newly opened two years prior in mid 1894.

Approximately 580 exhibitors took part from around the world, with one reviewer commenting that other than the scientific entries, in terms of mounted photographs:there may have been several thousand of them”. The exhibition had the support of Victoria, Empress of Germany and Queen of Prussia, the first born child of Queen Victoria of Great Britain and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha: a chip off the proverbial block per chance? It’s well known Albert had a passion for employing early photography to document the British Royal family.

On September 3, 1896, Berlin, Germany’s Reichstag building, shown here around 1895, opened its ornate entrances on September 3, 1896 to host the Inter­national Exhibition of Amateur Photography (Internationalen Ausstellung für Amateur-Photographie). Over 580 exhibitors from around the world took part and 26,000 visitors attended the salon during the months of September and October 1896. Today the Reichstag is home to the German federal parliament, known as the Bundestag. Photo source: Grüße aus Berlin und Umgebung. Verlag Kunstanstalt W. Sommer, Berlin-Schöneberg 1898

Due to this work being an important influence on the perception of photography as art in the public discourse during the last years of the 19th century, I’ve dedicated some time in pulling contemporary reviews for the exhibition, and have further translated the entirety of the letterpress for the portfolio, along with acknowledgements, etc. from editor Franz Goerke and the main portfolio essay penned by Richard Stettiner. I will continue my thoughts at the conclusion of this post on the importance of the photogravure plates from this work and how it influenced Alfred Stieglitz in America, with the baton first taken up by Goerke- an important proponent of the photogravure process. Goerke had shown a series of mounted photogravures at the exhibition- logically continuing his favored reproduction process by assembling Nach der Natur as a remembrance of it. But first, some contemporary excerpts laying out differing perceptions of the 1896 Berlin exhibition by the German photographic press:

1845: The future Empress Friedrich, German Empress and Queen of Prussia (1840-1901) is shown at left seated with her mother, Queen Victoria (1819-1901) of the United Kingdom. The Empress was the official patron for the 1896 Berlin amateur photographic exhibition, with the 1897 portfolio “Nach der Natur” dedicated to her. Carbon print c.1889-91 by Hughes & Mullins from an original 1845 daguerreotype. This is probably the earliest photographic likeness of the Queen and the Princess Royal. Photograph: Royal Collection Trust: RCIN 293131

Observations: The German Photographic Press (translated)

Photographische Mitteilungen, Berlin: October, 1896: reviewer Paul Hanneke:

  On September 3rd, the international exhibition for amateur photography opened in the new Reichstag building. The choice of location is certainly a very fortunate one, because as a sight in Berlin, it already exerts a certain attraction on the public. The rooms made available for the photography exhibition are on the first floor and are large enough to be able to arrange the numerous pictures etc. received in a clear order. Unfortunately, the lighting conditions are sometimes quite unfavorable, so that some beautiful pieces do not really come into their own. The exhibition itself is richly represented by all parts of the world, namely Austria, England, France and Belgium, which are countries that have participated heavily and are distinguished by their outstanding achievements, especially in artistic terms.  (1.)

Left: The 1896 Official catalogue and guide of the International Exhibition for Amateur Photography Berlin, (Officieller Katalog und Führer der Internationalen Ausstellung für Amateur-Photographie Berlin 1896.) published by Rudolf Mosse, featured a cover drawing of a photographer and two farmworkers. The 112 pp. catalogue featured a frontispiece of the Reichstag, a listing of exhibits and 40 pages of advertising at the rear. Photo courtesy Antiquariat Geister, Berlin. Right: Printed in red letterpress are details that appeared opposite the title page to the portfolio “Nach der Natur” published in early 1897. Individual page: 48.5 x 35.2 cm. Translated, it reads: ALBUM ✻ OF THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION FOR AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY BERLIN 1896 ✻ PUBLISHED ON BEHALF OF ✻ THE GERMAN SOCIETY OF FRIENDS OF PHOTOGRAPHY ✻ AND ✻ THE FREE PHOTOGRAPHIC ASSOCIATION ✻ BY ✻ FRANZ GOERKE ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Wiener Photographische Blätter, Vienna: November, 1896: reviewer Ludwig David:

Respectfully withholding commentary for work shown at the exhibition by his own club:the Vienna School has taken its place with honor”, David gives overall thoughts and then offers criticism for individual works at the exhibition from their respective countries, England, France, Belgium, etc: “The exhibition was divided into several sections in order to keep the representations of artistic photography and those serving scientific purposes separate. The fact that the exhibition was housed in the stately, wide rooms of the new Reichstag building ensured that it was well attended, as many people were enticed to get to know the interior design and the beauties of this new building. The large number of visitors, around 26,000 people, can also be attributed to the keen interest shown in the exhibition by Berlin’s upper class.

“ln der Dämmerung | At Dusk”: 1897” Emma Justine Farnsworth, 1860-1952: American: Hand-pulled photogravure, plate #3 included within letterpress for “Nach der Natur” portfolio: 8.4 x 14.0 cm on leaf 48.5 x 35.2 cm. This photo dates to 1893, and is a variant of a better known pose she copyrighted in 1894. (where subject is not sleeping) Vienna reviewer Ludwig David commented on Farnsworth work at the 1896 Berlin exhibition: “In Emma Justine Farnsworth (Albany) we meet an excellent artist whose figure studies are surrounded by a poetic magic. When one considers that the depiction of the figurative in the natural landscape is in itself a delicate task, one must doubly admire the lyricism associated with the pictures. The good pigment prints, produced in bright colors, also give the pictures a captivating charm. “At Dusk” is the title of one of the most beautiful Chiaroscuro pictures. A young lady is resting, stretched out on a bench, just below a window formed by bull’s-eye panes; the light floods in places.” Wiener Photographische Blätter, November, 1896 p. 214. From: PhotoSeed Archive

  All of the pictures that were not for scientific purposes, there may have been several thousand of them, were housed partly in the corridors, which receive their scant light from the courtyards of the building, and partly in a large domed structure that connects these corridors and has a skylight. In these rooms there was room for all the pictures that are understood under the somewhat cumbersome and tasteless name of “amateur photographs.” There was no separation of the pictures of an artistic nature from the majority of pictures that do not claim this designation.”

  From America, David singles out William Boyd Post, Clarence Moore, C.R. Pancoast, Charles I. Berg, Emma Justine Farnsworth, A. Eidenmüller (St. Paul) and Alfred Stieglitz: …“a well-known master whose fame was not first established at this exhibition. Most of his pictures are no longer new either. “A wet day, with its drastic rainy mood is outstanding; “Scurrying home“, two old Dutch women walking through the countryside, is picturesque, a splendid picture printed in sepia.

“Bolton Abbey”, Charles S. Baynton, 1866-1926: English: Hand-pulled photogravure, plate #10 included within “Nach der Natur” portfolio: 15.8 x 20.7 cm on leaf 35.2 x 48.5 cm. This stunning multiple-color photogravure is surely one of the highlights of the portfolio. C.S. Baynton was an accomplished amateur photographer who specialized in architectural work. He was a long-standing member of the Birmingham Photographic Society. Located in North Yorkshire, the historical remains of Bolton Abbey (monastery) date to the middle ages. From: PhotoSeed Archive

  It must be said of the exhibition itself that it has fully fulfilled its task of giving a picture of the current state of photography. The arrangers, who had to deal with an enormous amount of material, deserve credit for having handled this task in a skilful manner: among others, Dr. Neuhauss has done particularly well for the scientific department of photography, and Mr. Franz Goerke for the artistic department. The light in the exhibition room was not sufficient in all places, the pictures were often too close together and hung much too high. It would also have been advisable to separate the pictures with a painterly effect from the works that were not of the same quality and to have the admission and award jury for this section comprise only recognized artists.” (2.)

“Mlle. Cléo de Mérode”, Carle de Mazibourg, dates unknown: French: Hand-pulled photogravure, plate #8 included within “Nach der Natur” portfolio: 23.0 x 14.6 cm on leaf 48.5 x 35.2 cm. Amateur photographer Carle de Mazibourg is considered one of the very first street fashion photographers and since at least 1895 was a member of the professionally oriented Societé Française de Photographie Paris. His subject here-modeling in a Paris park, is French Belle Époque dancer Cléo de Merode. (1875-1966) Merode has been referred to as the “first real celebrity icon” and the “first modern celebrity”. She was also the first woman whose photographic image, due in particular to photographers Nadar and Léopold-Émile Reutlinger, was distributed worldwide. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Photographische Correspondenz, Vienna & Leipzig: October, 1896: Unknown reviewer(s):

  Would you like a picture of the international exhibition for amateur photography in Berlin? If you call a horse a crocodile, you have used a nomenclature that is just as correct as calling this exhibition an amateur exhibition, assuming that you assume that the amateur does photography for pleasure.

It would actually be time to divide amateur photographers into two classes: amateurs who turn to the subject out of scientific interest and pursue serious studies for their own development, and dilettantes who only engage in photography per diletto, for pleasure and to pass the time. Even with this classification, the name of the exhibition would hardly be correct, because it contains universal material in which the specific arts and crafts play a large part; it shows the enormous expansion of photography in our time, of which portrait photography is only a very small individual case. Due to this versatility, one could say that the exhibition is filled with the work of professional photographers.

There is hardly an area of ​​art and science that does not have a connection with photography. This explains the lively interest shown in this technique even in the highest circles, and which finds its most striking expression in the fact that Her Majesty the Empress Frederick has granted the exhibition her patronage.

“Grenadiers at the Watchfire”: Albert-Edouard Drains, known professionally as Alexandre: 1855-1925: Belgian: Hand-pulled photogravure, plate #12 included within “Nach der Natur” portfolio: 20.2 x 28.6 cm on leaf 35.2 x 48.5 cm. Grenadier guard soldiers, (British? French?) their swords at their side, sit around a watchfire. In addition to being a renowned pictorialist: landscapes, seascapes, studies of military life, nudes, portraits of artists, etc., Alexandre was a Photograph dealer specializing in the collotype process of reproducing paintings in the Royal Museums of Belgium. From: PhotoSeed Archive

The exhibition not only gives a picture of art and science, no, it gives a description of the world in pictures, which ranges from the mists of emerging worlds to the tiniest creatures that treacherously gnaw at the health of our bodies; and those who are prevented by unfavorable circumstances from following their urge to travel far away will find satisfaction here, because Mother Earth is presented to them from the snow-covered peaks of the highest mountains to the deepest shafts of the burrowing miners, from the islands of the South Seas circling the globe to the west, to the magnificent landscapes of California.

On the whole, the practice of platinum and pigment processes predominate. Matte collodion paper is also often used, but cannot compete with the first-mentioned processes in terms of artistic impression, not least because of the bluish cold tone of the background, which is one of the disadvantages of stencil-based photography. Pictures with a glossy surface are only found in small numbers and least of all where the artistic effect of the picture is important.

“Am Meere | By the Sea”: Rudolf Crell: 1833-1904: German: Hand-pulled photogravure, plate #12 included within “Nach der Natur” portfolio: 11.9 x 16.0 cm on leaf 35.2 x 48.5 cm. A painted seashore behind her, a woman poses for a portrait inside a studio. Rudolf Crell was known to also be a painter, so the backdrop may be by his hand. A senior teacher ,Crell lived in Altona from 1875. He was a full member of the Society for the Promotion of Amateur Photography in Hamburg from 1895 until he moved to Desau in 1898. From: PhotoSeed Archive

We now enter the round domed hall, which has an international character. We would like to call it the fermentation vat of the exhibition, because here it ripples and foams and struggles for new means of expression and creates bubbles, some of which disintegrate, while others condense into core points around which new structures arrange themselves. Here you can hear the professional photographers cry out in horror, and yet they should be able to explain why a considerable number of visitors describe these works in particular as painterly and virtuosic. Does the secessionist idea have any justification alongside the traditional art forms? It undoubtedly deserves to be examined for its causes, its nature and its relationship to the traditional. It is the absolutely unfamiliarity that has a repulsive effect on the professional photographers here. They are used to looking at the world through photographic glasses and do not believe that it looks completely different in reality. But photography is old enough that these glasses will need new lenses that are a bit sharper. A picture that is hung on the wall must not be too small and must have a different, less decorative character than a picture that is kept in an album for intimate viewing. For this reason, the large pictures at the exhibition are so much more effective than the small pictures that one has to look at with a trained eye. (3.)

“Auf der Landstrasse | On the Country Road”: Léonard Misonne: 1870-1943, Belgian: Hand-pulled photogravure, plate #22 included within “Nach der Natur” portfolio: 15.4 x 21.1 cm on leaf 35.2 x 48.5 cm. Three women gather to chat on a country road outside their village- a welcome interlude perhaps for chores begun. According to the Directory of Belgian Photographers, “Misonne’s work is characterised by a masterly treatment of light and atmospheric conditions. His images express poetic qualities, but sometimes slip into an anecdotal sentimentality.” He was nicknamed “the Corot of photography”. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Compatriots in Photogravure: Franz Goerke & Alfred Stieglitz

And who was responsible for these “sumptuous hand-pulled photogravure plates” contained in Nach der Natur? The Photographische Gesellschaft in Berlin. As I’ve noted elsewhere on this site, the proper name of this atelier is The Berlin Photographic Company. Established in 1862 in Berlin, Germany with retail and distribution branch offices located in New York, London and Paris, this large art publishing house was founded by the brothers Christian “Albert” Eduard Werckmeister, (1827-1873) an engineer and chemist, and “Friedrich” Gustav Werckmeister, (1839-1894) a painter and etcher. The concern was collectively owned and run by their younger brother Emil Werckmeister. (1844-1923) The majority of their efforts concerned the reproduction and sale of engravings and notable oil paintings by master artists in the collections of major museums and collections throughout Europe, with the permanent process of photogravure a specialty of the house.

The establishment of fine photogravure production in Europe, including the earlier noteworthy efforts of Walter L. Colls in London for his Linked Ring Salon folios and Photo Club de Paris folios by Charles Wittmann in Paris set a very high bar for the future published efforts of Franz Goerke in Berlin and Alfred Stieglitz in New York.

“Nach Hause | Home”: Alfred Stieglitz: 1864-1946, American: Hand-pulled photogravure, plate #30 included within “Nach der Natur” portfolio: 18.9 x 15.6 cm on leaf 48.5 x 35.2 cm. Dutch fishwives head for home on the beach at Katwyk, in South Holland. Best known with the title Scurrying Home, its alternate title is Hour of Prayer, the implication being they were heading to their daily ritual of the sanctuary of the church-seen in the background of the photograph. From: PhotoSeed Archive

After his publication of Nach der Natur, Goerke, (1856-1931) an important exponent of German art photography, took on the project of being editor and publisher for Die Kunst in der Photographie, (The Art of Photography) published in Berlin from from 1897-1908. Many of the hundreds of fine photogravure plates making up the run of DKIDP beginning with 1897 can be found in this archive. A founder along with others in 1889 of the Free Photographic Association in Berlin, Franz Goerke’s promotion of photography as art is summed up as part of his Preface to Nach der Natur:  

“The seed has been sown by this exhibition. May it bear rich fruit. Above all, it should convince those who still see artistic photography as a useless and pointless game that there is a deep and serious desire in amateur circles to raise photography to the status of art and to place it alongside other arts.”

An amateur photographer himself, Goerke’s passion as publisher and editor certainly piqued the interest of Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) in New York, a self-taught amateur photographer whose formal education included mechanical engineering, beginning in October, 1882, when he enrolled in the all male Technical University of Berlin (Technische Hochschule) and later photochemistry at the same institution- taught by Hermann Wilhelm Vogel. (1834-1898) An authority on orthochromatic photography, Vogel became a mentor to the young Stieglitz, and he later founded the Deutsche Gesellschaft von Freunden der Photographie (German Society of the Friends of Photography) in 1887.

At the conclusion of his university studies and Continental wanderings, Stieglitz returned to the US in September, 1890 at the passing of his sister Flora. At the urging of his father Edward, he soon became involved with the business venture of photoengraving: first at the struggling Heliochrome Company in lower Manhattan, which he eventually restructured. Taking on his two former Berlin roommates Louis Schubart and Joseph Obermeyer as partners, this concern was rechristened the Photochrome Engraving Company. Photogravure was a specialty, but Stieglitz soon became involved in other ventures-first co-editing the American Amateur Photographer in 1893, ultimately rising to sole editor in January, 1895, the increased workload among his other interests giving him “the opportunity to disentangle himself from the Photochrome Engraving Company”. (4.) Even without having a direct hand in his own atelier, by the time he received his copy of the Nach der Natur portfolio in late 1897, his obvious delight and respect for the photogravure plates executed within by the Photographische Gesellschaft in Berlin under Goerke’s mindful watch gave him obvious delight. This in turn gave him reason to author a review of the portfolio in the pages of the new publication Camera Notes, the journal of the New York Camera Club. Paraphrasing, his reaction to the quality of these plates proclaimed photogravure: the most perfect of all photographic reproduction processes.” (5.)

“Photographische Gesellschaft Berlin”: gold emblem, (5.0 x 3.9 cm) stamped on verso of cloth-covered boards for Nach der Natur portfolio. (49.8 x 37.0 x 2.2 cm) Known as the Berlin Photographic Company, this atelier, a large art publishing house, was established in 1862 in Berlin, Germany with retail and distribution branch offices located in New York, London and Paris. The permanent process of photogravure was a specialty of the house, and it was chiefly concerned with the reproduction and sale of engravings and notable oil paintings by master artists in the collections of major museums and collections throughout Europe. From: PhotoSeed Archive

The review in its entirety: “Nach der Naturis without doubt the most elaborate and beautiful publication which has yet appeared in photographic literature.

The series of photogravures which form the bulk of the book, include pictures by the chief medallists of the Exhibition. Among the familiar names we find: Henneberg, Alexandre, Hannon, Farnsworth, Stieglitz, Le Beque, Bremard, Baynton, Esler, David, Boehmer, etc. The text, which serves as an introduction to the pictures, is an essay, which tries to prove that pictorial photography may be an art. Even if all the pictures selected may not prove the case most of them are perfect gems. The photogravures, as such, are beautiful specimens of the most perfect of all photographic reproduction processes.

The library of every photographic club should include this important work, as those interested in pictorial photography will find every phase of it well represented. A copy has been procured for the Camera Club Library.  A.S. (6.)

Stieglitz would go on to publish his own portfolio of fine photogravures: Picturesque Bits of New York and Other Studies in 1897, (N.Y.: R.H. Russell) the same year Nach der Natur appeared. On the other side of the Atlantic, Goerke’s  own Die Kunst in der Photographie, which should be considered the most important European publication directly inspiring the fine photogravures that soon appeared under the editorship of Stieglitz’s Camera Notes, would in turn lead him elevating the process to its apogee in the US: his groundbreaking and seminal venture Camera Work, published between 1903-17.

⎯ David Spencer  October, 2024

 

1.  Excerpt: Paul Hanneke: Internationale Ausstellung für Amateur – Photographie zu Berlin , Photographische Mitteilungen, Berlin: October, 1896: pp. 205-209/ continues: pp. 219-224; 235-37.

2. Excerpt: Ludwig David: “Die künstlerische Richtung auf der internationalen Ausstellung für Amateur-Photographie in Berlin,” Wiener Photographische Blätter, Wien: 3:11 (November 1896), pp. 201–215

3.Excerpt: “Berliner Nachrichten. September 1896.”, Photographische Correspondenz, Vienna & Leipzig: October, 1896: from unknown reviewer(s): (article signed: “Von der Hasenhaide”) pp. 471-477

4. Julia Thompson: Stieglitz’s Portfolios and Other Published Photographs: Alfred Stieglitz Key Set, NGA Online Editions, accessed September, 2024

5. Camera Notes, New York: Vol. 1, issue III: January, 1898

6. Ibid, p. 85

19th Century Game Theory

Oct 2020 | Alternate Processes, Cameras, Engraving, Games, History of Photography, New Additions, Publishing

19th Century amateur photographers faced trials and tribulations in mastering their new found craft, put into the spotlight after photography itself became a growing mass medium with the marketing of Kodak’s #1 box camera in late 1888.

In 1889, taking advantage of this new large audience-by giving them a fun diversion- the Milton Bradley company of Springfield, Massachusetts produced what is believed to be the world’s first card game on photography, one they called “The Amateur Photographer”.  So now, the agony and ecstasy experienced by those dedicated amateurs who owned more advanced cameras and maintained wet darkrooms while embracing art and science could be enjoyed by all. PhotoSeed recently acquired 24 cards of this game from the original set of 36.

Left: “Buy a Good Outfit” : Right: “First Prize”. 1889. Individual coated-paper lithographic playing cards measuring 8.9 x 5.6 cm (3.5 x 2.25”). Milton Bradley Company, Springfield, MA. The cards making up the game “The Amateur Photographer” were illustrated to show “the triumphs and “hard luck” of an amateur photographer in a way that no member of the craft can fail to appreciate”. From: PhotoSeed Archive

The directions for this Victorian card game can be seen printed below in a vintage advertisement for the 1889-90 Milton Bradley Company “Catalogue of Games, Sectional Pictures, Toys, Puzzles, Blocks and Novelties”. 

For the most part up to the present day, physical card and board games have never featured the character of the photographer, although video games beginning in the 1990’s have included many, including: “Polaroid Pete” (1992), “Pokémon Snap” (1999), “Dead Rising” (2006): excerpt: “gamers play photojournalist Frank West, who somehow got stuck in a shopping mall in Colorado during the zombie apocalypse. Frank has to fight his way out through hoardes of zombies and uncover the truth with his camera.” and “Spiderman 3” (2007).

Instead, popular culture has taken the lead, with the larger than life character of the photographer (for good and bad) celebrated in films taking hold in our collective imaginations. Some that come to mind by this writer include James Stewart’s character spying out his apartment window using a telephoto camera lens in Alfred Hitchcock’s masterful film “Rear Window”, (1954) and Peter Parker’s more recent alter-ego occupation sans Spiderman suit. Enjoy the following select game cards from this surviving set.

Left: Title Page from “Catalogue of Games, Sectional Pictures, Toys, Puzzles, Blocks and Novelties Made by Milton Bradley Company”. Right: Catalogue listing for card game “The Amateur Photographer” in same volume, 1889-90. (p. 10) Courtesy: Internet Archive

Left: “Try an Instantaneous Shot” : Right: “Film Comes Off”. 1889. Individual coated-paper lithographic playing cards measuring 8.9 x 5.6 cm (3.5 x 2.25”). Milton Bradley Company, Springfield, MA. The cards making up the game “The Amateur Photographer” were illustrated to show “the triumphs and “hard luck” of an amateur photographer in a way that no member of the craft can fail to appreciate”. These two negative value cards show two common problems: film emulsion sensitivity or improper camera settings on left card reveals the amateur’s error of not being able to “stop” the action of a race horse while the chemical darkroom problem of a peeling film emulsion (washing too vigorously perhaps?) ruining the masterwork of a sailboat photograph at right. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Left: “Two on the Same Plate” : Right: “How Pretty”. 1889. Individual coated-paper lithographic playing cards measuring 8.9 x 5.6 cm (3.5 x 2.25”). Milton Bradley Company, Springfield, MA. The cards making up the game “The Amateur Photographer” were illustrated to show “the triumphs and “hard luck” of an amateur photographer in a way that no member of the craft can fail to appreciate”. The negative value card at left shows the common problem of exposing the same photographic plate twice for two different scenes while at right, a positive value card shows a seemingly perfect picture of a bouquet of flowers. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Left: “She Only Wanted to See the Picture” : Right: “Composite Old Maids in Our Town”. 1889. Individual coated-paper lithographic playing cards measuring 8.9 x 5.6 cm (3.5 x 2.25”). Milton Bradley Company, Springfield, MA. The cards making up the game “The Amateur Photographer” were illustrated to show “the triumphs and “hard luck” of an amateur photographer in a way that no member of the craft can fail to appreciate”. Gender sexism depicting the foibles of the female sex was alive and well when Amateur Photography first came into fashion- evidenced by the negative value card at left of a woman peeking at the results of an exposed photographic plate before the negative was properly fixed in the darkroom. Owing to the fact Photography was then a very expensive hobby and career opportunities for women in general were completely lacking, the majority of practitioners were men. But this would soon change, particularly after the dawn of the 20th Century, when Photography actually became one of the few occupations women were encouraged to pursue outside the home. At right, in a twist of this same gender sexism, a positive value card reveals itself in the form of this photographic portrait of an “old maid”, complete with mustache and tiara? or hair comb- with comparisons to later portraits of Queen Victoria by the card artist possibly being the so-called “humorous” intent. From: PhotoSeed Archive

Left: “Snap Shot at Tennis Player” : Right: “Try a Shot by Magnesium Light With Good Effect”. 1889. Individual coated-paper lithographic playing cards measuring 8.9 x 5.6 cm (3.5 x 2.25”). Milton Bradley Company, Springfield, MA. The cards making up the game “The Amateur Photographer” were illustrated to show “the triumphs and “hard luck” of an amateur photographer in a way that no member of the craft can fail to appreciate”. These two high value cards reveal the very tricky technical goal of freezing sports action at left- something rarely attempted at the time- and at right, the undertaking of a so-called “flashlight” photograph. This was achieved on a photographic plate through the intense illumination given off during the ignition of flash powder made up of a mixture of nitrate and magnesium held off camera by the photographer. From: PhotoSeed Archive

One exception found online by this website is the 2016 Japanese card game  “Wind the Film!”, a half-frame camera photography themed card game for 2-4 players.

American Love Story

Aug 2019 | New Additions, Publishing, Significant Photographs

“And I never saw that love did any harm anywhere or was complained about O my brothers when you understood it: 

For that’s about all life comes to anyhow—comes to the love we can put into it:

I just give you what I’ve got, dear comrades.”   -Horace Traubel

“Horace Traubel: Roundel Portrait” : Allen Drew Cook, American (1871-1923): 1910: mounted platinum print contained within folder: 17.4” roundel on paper 23.7 x 19.6 cm; supports: 24.8 x 20.6 | 28.4 x 23.9 cm. Folder: 29.4 x 48.8 cm. This print dedicated to Gustave Percival Wiksell (1863-1940): “Wiksell” in upper left corner of print recto; signed “Horace Traubel 1910” at lower right. Best remembered as the literary executor and biographer extraordinaire of America’s first national poet Walt Whitman, this uncommon profile portrait features the American editor and poet Horace Logo Traubel. (1858-1919) Traubel, a magazine publisher and committed socialist who held Whitman’s hand on his deathbed and earlier compiled nearly two million words over the the last four years in daily conversations with the poet, later transcribed and ultimately published what would become the nine volume opus: “With Walt Whitman in Camden”. From: PhotoSeed Archive

In this 200th anniversary year of American poet Walt Whitman’s birth, articles and exhibitions abound, celebrating the continuing relevance of America’s “Bard of Democracy”. But who was largely responsible for initially preserving, and thus memorializing for a larger audience this most important literary voice? A gentleman by the name of Horace Traubel. (1858-1919)

Three years ago I had the good fortune of purchasing a heraldic roundel portrait of Traubel, the one featured above taken by a fellow Philadelphian, pictorialist photographer Allen Drew Cook. (1871-1923) 

Lines addressed to Gustave Percival Wiksell (1863-1940) from the Horace Traubel poem “I Just Give You What I’ve Got” (from “Optimos”- 1910) in hand of author on inside front cover to folder containing photograph “Horace Traubel: Roundel Portrait”. Wiksell was a Boston dentist who served as president of the Walt Whitman Fellowship from 1903-1919. “You don’t know me? I do not wonder: I dont know myself: I am at a loss about myself: You ask: who are you? and I shake my head : I look at you and say nothing: I come to you but I could not tell why: I have something for you but I could not tell what: Out of me some flower will blossom out of my seedthrow some harvest will come. – Horace Traubel”. Writing in the Mickle Street Review No. 16, (2004) U.S. scholar Michael Robertson’s article “The Gospel According To Horace: Horace Traubel And The Walt Whitman Fellowship” outlines Traubel’s and Wiksell’s relationship: “However, Traubel’s letters to Wiksell move beyond comradeship into physically explicit expressions of desire.  “I dream of . . . the little bed in your paradise and the two arms of a brother that accept me in their divine partnership,”(114) Traubel wrote shortly before traveling to Boston.  After his visit, he wrote longingly, “I sit here and write you a letter.  It is not a pen that is writing.  It is the lips that you have kissed.  It is the body that you have traversed over and over with your consecrating palm.  Do you not feel that body?  Do you not feel the return?”(115) These and other letters leave little doubt that the two men had a sexual love affair, an affair that seems to have been remarkably guilt-free.  Wiksell’s letters to Traubel refer to his own wife and child and mix heavy-breathing passion with cheery greetings to “Annie and Gertrude,”(116) Traubel’s wife and daughter.”(114-“I dream of”: Traubel to Wiksell, 3 Jan. 1904, WC.; 115-“I sit here”: Traubel to Wiksell, 12 May 1904, WC.; 116-“Annie and Gertrude”: Wiksell to Traubel, 30 Dec. 1901, TC.) From: PhotoSeed Archive

Best remembered as the literary executor and biographer extraordinaire of Walt Whitman, Horace Traubel was also a magazine publisher and committed socialist who held the poet’s hand on his deathbed and compiled nearly two million words over the last four years in daily conversations with him, later transcribing and publishing in his lifetime the first three volumes of what would become his nine volume opus: With Walt Whitman in Camden. (completed 1996)

Unlike Whitman, whom The Guardian newspaper notes in an article published this year “was also the 19th century’s most photographed American writer”, (1.) there are only a smattering of photographs featuring Traubel-most being credited to Cook. By and large, Horace Traubel is a figure in American letters most people have never heard of.

Left: “Gustave Percival Wiksell as Walt Whitman”: Undated gelatin-silver print by Emile Brunel Studio, Boston, ca. 1915-25?: Wearing similar clothing, Wiksell strikes a pose similar to one Whitman made from a lost daguerreotype by Gabriel Harrison later made into a steel engraving by Samuel Hollyer. Boston dentist Gustave Percival Wiksell was an ardent devotee to Walt Whitman and president of the Whitman Fellowship from 1903-19. Photograph © All rights reserved by tackyspoons/flickr. Middle: 1855 first edition title page to Leaves of Grass, Brooklyn, New York. Courtesy The Lilly Library, Indiana University. Right: Original Samuel Hollyer steel engraving of frontispiece portrait of Walt Whitman used for the 1855 and 1856 editions of Leaves of Grass.,Gabriel Harrison’s original 1854 daguerreotype showed the 35-year-old Whitman wearing laborer’s clothing. The Whitman Archive provides the following description of the original sitting: “Of the day the original daguerreotype was taken, Whitman remembered, “I was sauntering along the street: the day was hot: I was dressed just as you see me there. A friend of mine—”Gabriel Harrison (you know him? ah! yes!—”he has always been a good friend!)—”stood at the door of his place looking at the passers-by. He cried out to me at once: ‘Old man!—”old man!—”come here: come right up stairs with me this minute’—”and when he noticed that I hesitated cried still more emphatically: ‘Do come: come: I’m dying for something to do.’ This picture was the result.” Engraving courtesy Bayley Collection: Ohio Wesleyan via Walt Whitman Archive.

But concerning the roundel portrait of Traubel, what a difference between it and the staid portraits published during his lifetime! The seller described it thus: “Vintage Risque Photo Handsome Shirtless Man w/ Love Poem c. 1910 Gay Interest”. If you are a collector like me, the proverbial eye roll is something experienced practically every day in the course of searches for new treasure. To wit: if it’s a photo depicting two men together- or for that matter, two women- a seller might add the descriptor of “Gay Interest” to the listing. This is laughable on the face of it, as to my mind there is often a complete disconnect between reality often taking over the minds of sellers intent on rewriting photographic evidence for the sole purpose of making a quick buck.

But not always. Fortunately for me, and unbeknownst to the seller, I had a hunch who the sitter of this portrait was. My offer accepted, I only later determined “gay interest” was only the tip of the iceberg.

After some sleuthing, I discovered this portrait had seemingly been published only one time in 1919: as the dust-jacket illustration to a limited-edition posthumous work on Traubel written by his biographer David Karsner, a close friend who describes him as part Karl Marx and Jesus of Nazareth, andin possession of a point of view which issues a labor-conscious ‘warning and challenge.” (2.)

Detail: 1887: Walt Whitman-1819-1892 by George C. Cox: (portrait known as the “Laughing Philosopher”) 23.9 x 18.8 cm | 45.2 x 33.3 cm: vintage large format, hand-pulled photogravure printed circa 1905-10 by the Photographische Gesellschaft in Berlin on Van Gelder Zonen plate paper. From: PhotoSeed Archive

But unlike the aforementioned staid portraits, which always show him wearing a shirt or jacket- this profile view was unusual for the time in which it was made- 1910-bare-shouldered, and thus sans shirt. When I finally made out the signature of the person this particular print was dedicated to-personally inscribed by the sitter on the print surface recto to someone named “Wiksell” in the upper left corner, it all came together. For on the inside cover of the folder in which this portrait appears (when purchased it was framed) Traubel has inscribed several lines- a love poem, if you will, confirming the  sellers hunch, “For Percival Wiksell- 1910” :  

You don’t know me? I do not wonder: I dont know myself: I am at a loss about myself: 

You ask: who are you? and I shake my head : I look at you and say nothing:

I come to you but I could not tell why: I have something for you but I could not tell what:

Out of me some flower will blossom out of my seedthrow some harvest will come. – Horace Traubel

 (From Optimos:  “I Just Give You What I’ve Got”- 1910)

Left: “Frontispiece Portrait of Horace Traubel” (1909) from the book of poetry “Optimos”: Clarence H. White, American: 1910: photogravure: 11.4 x 8.7 | 18.7 x 12.5 cm. From scholar Anne McCauley’s 2017 volume “Clarence H. White and His World: the Art and Craft of Photography, 1895-1925 we learn” : “Reynold’s (Stephen Marion Reynolds (1854-1930) a lawyer who joined the Social Democratic Party in 1900-ed) and Traubel’s recognition of photography as a powerful tool in the class struggle, whether in the form of the dissemination of the fine arts or as a creative means of personal expression if transformed by hand manipulation, caused them to appreciate White’s skills as well as his openness to their political opinions.” (p. 178) Right: Front Cover of “Optimos”, the best-known volume of poetry by Horace Traubel: New York: 1910: B.W. Huebsch (8vo | olive green cloth) From the Walt Whitman Archive online resource, “His own books can be read as socialist refigurings of Whitman’s work, each of his titles subtly adjusting Whitman’s terminology: …Optimos (1910) redefined Whitman’s “kosmos” as an optimized “cheerful whole” (qtd. in Bain 39). And although some in his day declared Traubel as a poet to be Whitman’s successor, there were plenty of critics. Writing in the pages of The Smart Set for July, 1911 under the heading “Novels for Hot Afternoons”, American critic H.L. Mencken, said of “Optimos”: “Horace Traubel fills the three hundred and more pages of his “optimos” (Huebsch) with dishwatery imitations of Walt Whitman, around whom Horace, in Walt’s Camden days, revolved as an humble satellite. All of the faults of the master appear in the disciple. There is the same maudlin affection for the hewer of wood and drawer of water, the same frenzy for repeating banal ideas ad nauseam, the same inability to distinguish between a poem and a stump speech. Old Walt, for all his absurdities, was yet a poet at heart. Whenever he ceased, even for a brief moment, to emit his ethical and sociological rubbish, a strange beauty crept into his lines and his own deep emotion glorified them. But not so with Horace. His strophes have little more poetry in them than so many college yells, and the philosophy they voice is almost as bad as the English in which they are written.” From: PhotoSeed Archive

The recipient, Gustave Percival Wiksell, (1863-1940) was a Boston dentist who served as president of the Walt Whitman Fellowship from 1903-1919. So devoted was this disciple to the master that he went to the length of replicating the now famous pose Whitman took from a now lost 1854 daguerreotype by Gabriel Harrison made into an engraving and used as the frontispiece illustration for the 1855 & 1856 editions of Whitman’s masterpiece Leaves of Grass.

Wiksell’s papers are now in the Library of Congress in Washington and he was known to have eulogized Horace Traubell at his funeral in 1919. More than one Traubel scholar lays out the evidence that Wiksell and he were more than good friends, but I will leave that for your own further inquiries.  (further attribution can be found in a cutline with this post)

“Ca. 1915 signed and mounted portraits of Horace Traubel” (unknown photographer) surrounding at center: “Horace Traubel: His Life And Work” by David Karsner (New York: Egmont Arens, 1919) with elusive dust-jacket reproducing bare-shouldered 1910 portrait “Horace Traubel: Roundel Portrait”. Commentary on Traubel by Karsner appeared in the online resource Poetrybay in the Fall of 2009: “On the other hand David Karsner, Traubel’s biographer… called him “a poet and prophet of the new democracy.” Traubel, suggests Karsner, is part Karl Marx and part Jesus of Nazareth, and in possession of a point of view which issues a labor-conscious ‘warning and challenge.” From Wikipedia: David Fulton “Dave” Karsner (1889–1941) was an American journalist, writer, and socialist political activist. Karsner is best remembered as a key member of the editorial staff of the New York Call and as an early biographer of Socialist Party of America leader Eugene V. Debs. Photographic grouping courtesy The Library of William F. Gable Auction: Savo Auctioneers, Archbald, PA: January 3, 2015.

Left: Detail showing blind-stamp for photographer Allen Drew Cook on secondary mount to photograph “Horace Traubel: Roundel Portrait”: Allen Drew Cook, American (1871-1923): 1910: mounted platinum print contained within folder: 17.4” roundel on paper 23.7 x 19.6 cm; supports: 24.8 x 20.6 | 28.4 x 23.9 cm. In upper left of detail is seen graphite signature: “Cook”, underlined outside lower margin of roundel; the blind-stamp additionally lists his address as 1631 Chestnut St. in Philadelphia- the same as for the offices of the The Conservator, a monthly literary magazine edited and published by Horace Traubel beginning in October, 1910. (the magazine, which was started in 1890, previously lists its’ address as 1624 Walnut St. in Philadelphia.) Beginning In 1915 and running into 1916, an advertisement for “Photographic Portraits” by Allen Drew Cook of Eugene Debs, Clarence Darrow, J. William Lloyd and Traubel appeared on the back page of The Conservator. From: PhotoSeed Archive. Right: “Study of a Girl’s Head”, from around 1900, is an early example of a pictorialist photographic portrait entered by Cook in the Third Annual Philadelphia Photographic Salon and reproduced as a halftone in the Salon’s 1900 catalogue. Courtesy: Thomas J. Watson Library Digital Collections – The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Five years ago on July 4th, America’s birthday, I published a post featuring several vintage likenesses of Walt Whitman- “Oh Say Can you See?” and his importance to capturing the enduring spirit of our country. In this, Traubel certainly will never be magically rediscovered as the good gray poet’s literary successor (none other than H.L. Mencken derided his  poetry as “dishwatery imitations of Walt Whitman, around whom Horace, in Walt’s Camden days, revolved as an humble satellite.”) (3.) But his ideals as one spreading love as written in the lines at the top of this post-a socialist ideal in the vein of Whitman- are surely honorable and needed in the fractured American present. Instead of cleaved partisan camps and tribes seemingly taking over our national conversation, how about a bit more love comrades? Socialism has nothing to do with that last word, by the way. Instead, let’s celebrate the ideals of our national melting pot, and give all her citizenry power to the truth of  her motto: “E Pluribus Unum” – Out of Many, One.

Just what Horace would have wanted.

Notes:

1. Excerpt: The Guardian (online): Julianne McShane:Walt Whitman: celebrating an extraordinary life in his bicentennial”: June 12, 2019. One hundred thirty photographic portraits of Walt Whitman have been identified to date.

2. Excerpt: Online resource Poetrybay: Fall, 2009:  commentary on Traubel by Karsner. 

3.  Excerpt: Review: “Optimos” : “Novels for Hot Afternoons”: H.L. Mencken: The Smart Set: July, 1911.

Kodak City: the Sequel

Apr 2018 | Cameras, Conservation, Exhibitions, History of Photography, Photographic Preservation, Photography, Publishing

Speaking of photography in general, of which this website is particularly enamored of, our recent visit to Rochester, New York and attendance in the three-day conference “PhotoHistory/PhotoFuture” sponsored and organized by RIT Press and The Wallace Center at the Rochester Institute of Technology gave new meaning to their claims for the medium: “there has never been more of it than there is today.” That might be stating the obvious, especially in 2018, but the new meaning part was my own takeaway and inspiration.

By George, Still Relevant: During a reception at the George Eastman Museum for conference attendees, a young George Eastman,(1854-1932) who founded the Eastman Kodak Company, looms larger than life in a photograph taken in 1890 by Nadar. Entrepreneur and Philanthropist are emphasized on the wall label, and with good reason. From the museum’s website:”The George Eastman Museum is located in Rochester, New York, on the estate of George Eastman, the pioneer of popular photography and motion picture film. Founded in 1947 as an independent nonprofit institution, it is the world’s oldest photography museum and one of the oldest film archives. The museum holds unparalleled collections—encompassing several million objects—in the fields of photography, cinema, and photographic and cinematographic technology, and photographically illustrated books. The institution is also a longtime leader in film preservation and photographic conservation.” David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive

In present day Kodak city, the power of ideas relating to what made this place significant as an imaging industrial behemoth still exists, but has now gone in a new direction. With all due apologies, but the pun indeed appropriate, a snapshot of those ideas put forth by the conference attendees and speakers shows their passion for the medium’s minutiae both preserves and continues this essential democratic language. Those of memories past surely, but more and more the future in the form of ones and zeroes hurtling forward.

Although the “Big Yellow” of Rochester’s past is long gone, the ideas nourishing photography’s entire corpus continues apace, an alternate reality both present and future. For those curious enough, the RIT conference program along with a list of presenters can be found here, along with a few photos from the weekend courtesy of yours truly.  David Spencer- 

Documentary photography practiced as commerce on busy streets around the world, a genre roughly known as “Movie Snaps” because of the retrofitted movie cameras used in their making, was part of a fascinating presentation under the working title “Street Vendor Portraits Around the World: Czernowitz, Capetown, San Francisco, More!” given by independent scholar Mary Panzar of Rochester. Here, the hybrid look of Winogrand meeting Arbus becomes a document in a projected frame of a woman sporting fur and white gloves at left while a gentleman unaware at right emerges to flash and instant celebrity from a movie theatre on a nighttime street. David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive

Triptych in the Dark: Left: During his presentation “Did Talbot Make Daguerreotypes?”, the eminence of English photography pioneer William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877) is shown here by an image most in attendance had seen, yet Grant Romer- formerly of the Eastman House but now Founding Director of the Academy of Archaic Imaging, challenged us with another view: a decidedly unflattering profile of the paper/negative pioneer he rightly remarked might have made for a different public perception for the emerging medium had it been the lone evidence of his existence. Middle: a quote of photographic philosophy by American writer Susan Sontag (1933-2004) struck this observer as particularly relevant in the present day- University of Illinois Springfield professors Kathy Petitte Novak and Brytton Bjorngaard used it as supporting evidence while speaking on “The Blurring Distinctions of Taking versus Making Photographs: Teaching Photography in a Digital Culture”. Right: the appropriated late Victorian era reality of the dark underbelly of a small Wisconsin town through the lens of Black River Falls photographer Charles Van Schaik repurposed by author Michael Lesy in his 1973 cult classic “Wisconsin Death Trip” was supporting material for Nicolette Bromberg of the University of Washington, who argued photographic archivists need to understand context in her paper “Loss of Vision: How Art Historians and Critics Misjudge Early 20th Century Photography and How Early Photographers Along with Art Museums and Archives Help to Obscure the Photographic Record”. David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive

Photographic Preservation: With a mission statement stating they are the “world leader in the development and deployment of sustainable practices for the preservation of images and cultural heritage”, conference attendees toured the Image Permanence Institute, (www.imagepermanenceinstitute.org) which opened in 1985 as an academic research laboratory within the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences at RIT. For many visitors, IPI is known for their Graphics Atlas, (www.graphicsatlas.org) an online resource that helps identify photographic and other process print types. In front of a table with various displayed print types including a row of portraits toned with Polysulfide & Selenium Toner, Institute senior research scientist Douglas Nishimura at left chats with a visitor. David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive

Conference participants attended the exhibition “The Luminous Print: An Appreciation of Photogravure” organized by David Pankow, Curator Emeritus for the Cary Graphic Arts Collection at RIT now running through June 15, 2018. With beginnings in intaglio printing by artists working in the late 15th Century, photogravure’s historical timeline which evolved by the 19th Century as a medium for “images from real life” is showcased by superb examples featuring plates from bound volumes, portfolios and individual works. The pleasure in real life can be seconded by this attendee, with the following observation from the catalogue true to form: “enjoy this exhibition for the beauty of its images alone and discover why it has been said that a photogravure print is endowed with a luminosity unequalled by any other process.”David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive

Royal Visit: As an added bonus, conference attendees viewing “The Luminous Print” could rub shoulders with Massachusetts resident Jon Goodman, a master craftsman who has worked full time since 1976 as a photogravure printer specializing in the Talbot Klic photogravure technique . Beginning in 1980 through the Photogravure Workshop, a division of the Aperture Publishing Foundation and their namesake Aperture magazine and the Paul Strand Foundation, Jon has produced sumptuous, superb, and collectable portfolios of the early work of Paul Strand, Edward Steichen, and British photography. His mission continues today in his Florence, MA atelier along with a new interest: carbon printing. Displayed are six of Jon’s gravure plates featuring the pictorial work of Edward Steichen from the 1981 Aperture portfolio: “Edward Steichen; The Early Years, 1900-1927”. Top to bottom left to right: “Heavy Roses”, “Moonrise, Mamaroneck, New York”, “In Memoriam, New York”, “Steichen and Wife Clara on their Honeymoon, Lake George, New York”, “Three Pears and an Apple, France”, “The Flatiron”. Visit jgoodgravure.com and gravureportfolios.com for more information. David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive

History of Printing: A series of oil paintings by three artists originally commissioned in 1966 by the Kimberly-Clark Corporation commemorating “Graphic Communications through the Ages” hangs within the offices of the RIT Press ( www.rit.edu/press/ ) and the adjoining Cary Graphic Arts Collection at The Wallace Center. This painting shows a detail of the work “George P. Gordon and the Platen Press” done by American illustrator Robert A. Thom, (1915-1979) with a detail at right by Thom: “Ira Rubel and the Offset Press”. David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive

Making an Impression: Taking center stage for visitors is the famed Kelmscott/Goudy iron hand-press featured among other working presses in the Arthur M. Lowenthal Memorial Pressroom within the Cary Graphics Arts Collection at RIT. Visitors learned it was first owned by the English printer William Morris and then Frederic Goudy, two giants of the letterpress printing art. The press was built in London in 1891 by Hopkinson & Cope- an Improved Albion model (No. 6551). Now featuring around 40,000 fine and rare volumes on graphic communication history and practices, The Cary Collection is considered one of the premier libraries on the subject in the United States. ( library.rit.edu/cary ) David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive

Alternate History: The coverage by war photographer Robert Capa (1913-1954) for Life Magazine of American troops landing on Omaha Beach on D-Day during World War II was deconstructed after seven decades of public myth to facts by Staten Island, NY independent critic and historian A. D. Coleman. The first photo critic for the New York Times in 1967 and prolific author of books on photography as well as thousands of articles on the medium, Coleman presented his research during the conference titled “Deconstructing Robert Capa’s D-Day: The Unmaking of a Myth” that recently took place over three years helped by the efforts of war photographer J. Ross Baughman, Rob McElroy and Charles Herrick. As a former photojournalist myself for over three decades, I found his presentation convincing and enlightening: I still remember drying strips of film as a young photographer in large upright darkroom cabinets-the focus of some of the research when it was claimed a Life lab tech had melted Capa’s film on deadline- the worst I remember was curled film! Please visit capaddayproject.com to learn more. Malcolm Gladwell, (revisionisthistory.com) are you interested? David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive

Digital Elephant in Room: Visitors to George Eastman’s stately 50-room Colonial revival mansion adjoining the Eastman Museum will always remember the conservatory, where a fiberglass replica mount of an African bull elephant hangs- a conquest by the company founder during a 1928 Sudanese safari. Conveniently- and speaking of elephants in the room, I earlier had thoroughly enjoyed listening and pondering conference presenter Stephen Fletcher’s talk: “The Photographic Archivist is Dead, Long Live the Photographic Archivist!”, his call to action for the task of photo archivists in the 21st Century: what do we do and how do we preserve a portion for posterity and history the digital evidence of billions and billions of photographs taken-seemingly, every day? A photographic archivist in the North Carolina collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Fletcher’s call to arms would surely have inspired Eastman himself, a hands-on guy who is reported to have overseen every aspect of the construction of his mansion and made sure it contained all the cutting-edge technology of its’ day: from the Eastman Museum website: “Beneath this exterior were modern conveniences such as an electrical generator, an internal telephone system with 21 stations, a built-in vacuum cleaning system, a central clock network, an elevator, and a great pipe organ, which made the home itself an instrument, a center of the city’s rich musical life from 1905 until Eastman’s death in 1932. Eastman was involved in every aspect of the construction, paying close attention to detail and requiring the use of high-quality materials.” David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive

Smoking also Works: Perhaps the most startling object on display in the mansion-at least to those who do not know the intimate details of George Eastman’s life- is a facsimile of his 1932 suicide note: “To my friends – My work is done – why wait? GE.” Suppressed initially by the Eastman Kodak Company for decades, this news is sobering but important. Eastman had been crippled by a degenerative spinal disease and unable to walk, he shot himself through the heart in his upstairs bedroom. A music lover even after the end, a 1990 New York Times story on the renovation of the mansion noted he “requested a rousing ”Marche Romaine” by Charles Gounod be played at his funeral”. David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive

Fancy Box with Hole in It: Collectors and the curious had the opportunity to peruse the physical evidence of the history of photography during the concluding event of the conference, an antiquarian photography show and sale featuring 80 tables of wares including these vintage wooden box and Kodak cameras. Earlier, the RIT Press and Syracuse University Press showed off their latest offerings, including some wonderful photography volumes during the event. David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive

Learned from Jon Goodman: During the antiquarian photography show and sale, Ontario-based visual artist David Morrish, co-author along with Marlene MacCallum of the 2003 volume “Copper Plate Photogravure: Demystifying the Process”, shows off a page spread of original photogravures from his 2004 Deadcat Press imprint “Gaze” he was selling along with other work during the antiquarian photography show and sale. Earlier in the conference, Morrish and visual artist MacCallum, former professor in the Visual Arts Program at Memorial University of Newfoundland, presented on “Photogravure: Then and Now” highlighting the gravure process while showing how the medium’s ongoing relevance to contemporary art practice has influenced their own work in the production of print suites and artists’ books. Learn more at marlenemaccallum.com and davidmorrish.com. David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive

Future with a Past: St. Louis resident and commercial photographer Mark Katzman, the key force in proselytizing for the medium and beauty of hand-pulled photogravure worldwide through his website Photogravure.com, speaks with conference speaker Jeff Rosen during the antiquarian photography show and sale. Curious to learn what a real photogravure is, unlike the many who simply use the term-wrongly-to sell you something not what they claim? Head over to his newly redesigned site, where the mission statement is: “Peeling back a layer of the history of photography, this site examines the role that photogravure has played in shaping our shared visual experience. Through exploring thousands of examples, we learn about the relentless and ambitious 19th century pursuit to reproduce photographs in ink and discover the exquisite, sublime process that resulted. It is our hope that this site firmly establishes photogravure as not only one of the most under-recognized photographic processes, but also an important and beautiful art.” David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive

Keeper of Memories: Located at 900 East Ave. in Rochester, New York, the George Eastman Museum, along with a section of his original mansion and gardens on 8.5 acres constructed beginning in 1902, is a grand American repository for the study of photography past, present and future. Besides a growing archive of over 400,000 photographic objects spanning the history of the medium, the museum also features 16,000 + examples of photographic and cinematographic technology- the world’s largest. For those interested in the printed legacy, the accessible Richard and Ronay Menschel Library is also onsite, with a special collections and archive division housing “manuscripts, papers, and ephemera, including those of Alvin Langdon Coburn, Lewis W. Hine, Southworth and Hawes, and Edward Steichen, among other photographers, collectors, and inventors.” Curious? eastman.org. David Spencer for PhotoSeed Archive

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