1928 – Dramatic clouds hover over a boat sailing near the beach of Ahlbeck in Germany. © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com/Photo: Julius Simonsen
The story behind the image
This image is a scanned postcard that was sent in September 1928. The title simply says Wetterwolken (weather clouds) and was shot by photo pioneer Julius Simonsen in Ahlbeck in Germany. However, it cloud have been shot almost anywhere at the Baltic Sea.
I like this photo for combining a dramatic look with utmost simplicity. There are just the sea, the horizon, the boat, and the clouds that hover in the sky. Looking closer at the high resolution scan, I see a good amount of editing has gone into the postcard in the lab. The harsh contrast further underlines the dramatic look. What’s more, it almost seems that the boat has been painted into the water. At least Simonsen has manually improved the edges of the boat to further increase the contrast between the boat and the sky.
In any event, I love the mood of the image.
The photographer, Julius Simonsen, was born in 1876 in a small town between Schleswig and Flensburg. A son of a butcher, he originally was trained to become a merchant but decided to move into the photo business at the age of 20. He joined the studio of L. Christensen in Oldenburg in Holstein and acquired the business just four years later, in 1899. During his lifetime, Simonsen photographed all the beautiful spots in northern Germany and printed and sold the postcards under the label Kunstverlag Julius Simonsen.
Nikolaus Julius Simonsen died on the 29th October 1943 in Oldenburg at the age of 67. His stunning work will continue to live in the photo archives forever, showing the beauty of a world that has significantly changed since then.
The high resolution image
| Capture Date | 1928 |
| Photographer | Julius Simonsen |
| Location | Ahlbeck, Germany |
| Image Source | 13.5 x 8 cm postcard image |
| Digital Image Source | EPSON Perfection 4870 Photo |
| Digital Image Source Format | TIFF, 48 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Format | JPEG, 24 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Dimensions | 6327 x 3984 Pixels |
| Copyright | © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com/Photo: Julius Simonsen |
Zanzig.com Photo Hub 