Art of the Photographer

In the early 1800s, few people would recognize even the most famous people. In our media rich society of today, it’s difficult to imagine not knowing what Princess Diana, Elizabeth Taylor, or Brad Pitt looks like. But in the days prior to 1854, even the president or the Pope could walk down Main Street, Anywhere unrecognized and unnoticed. Photographs were few and far between. Each image required a separate glass plate and had to be printed individually. Then along came a French photographer named Andre Disderi. In 1854 he patented a camera with 4 lenses, capable of producing 8 separate images on one glass plate. This enabled multiple copies of photographs to be produced quickly and inexpensively. Disderi’s camera produced photographs that measured approximately 3 ½ by 2 ¼ inches, similar in size to the elegant engraved cards that ladies and gentlemen might leave when visiting friends and acquaintances. Because of this similarity, and because the pictures were indeed initially used as calling cards, Disderi called them "cartes-de-visite", French for "calling cards".
  The cartes were extremely popular, and everyone wanted them. Now it was possible for even those of limited means to commemorate a wedding, new baby, or other special occasion, and share it with loved ones near and far. Cartes of family and friends were the basis of most collections…but a new craze soon developed; collecting images of celebrities. Just as some people today collect baseball cards or autographs, people began to avidly acquire photos of famous politicians, royalty, and actors. According to Barbara McCandless in Photography in Nineteenth Century America, "the habit of collecting small portraits of celebrities and organizing them into albums became so popular that the public almost saw it as a social responsibility to collect images of the nation’s leaders".                                                                                                         lena.jpg (7599 bytes)
Around 1860, the ornate family photo album appeared and contributed greatly to the popularity of the cartes. Cartes were produced in roughly the same dimensions no matter where I the world they were produced, therefore would easily fit into the standard pockets in the tabletop albums. It is said that Queen Victorian herself had 110 of these albums, attesting to their popularity, with 36 of them being solely devoted to cartes of other royals!

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Family photo albums, and the new,  easy availability of photographs in general,  modified the way in which people perceived life stages and their sense of time.  Photographs changed the nature of nostalgia.  For the first time people were able to look at previously unknown dead ancestors and relatives.   Photographs were a way of cementing family relationships; reawakening warm feelings long after the participants had gone their separate ways.  For the Victorians, whose appetite for intimate scenes seems unlimited, photography laid open all of private life to the lens.
Many photographers made their name and their fortune selling cartes-de-visites. Others were not so fortunate. Andre Disderi’s story is, perhaps, most poignant. After the patent of his camera, Disderi became rich and famous…but the system was simple, and he soon had hundreds of competitors. Then, the larger cabinet cards became popular. Finally, in 1888, an American, George Eastman of the Kodak company (born the year that Disderi’s camera was invented) invented a box camera that made personal photography at home possible. People no longer had to go to a photographer. Disderi became a beach photographer in Nice and died penniless in a Paris hospital in 1890. But his legacy lives on…he ensured that millions of charming images of ordinary people celebrating milestones in their lives would survive. ralph.jpg (7788 bytes)

"No drawing room table of the day can be considered

furnished without its Photograph Album…it helps visitors

wonderfully as a key to the tastes and prejudiced of the house..."

New York Observer, 1862

Bibliographical reference: Victorian Decorating and Lifestyles, 1997.   Photos from Granny's Closet private collection.

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