1883 – A historic Carte de Visite shows gunners during a shooting training in Jüterbog, Germany. Photo: J. Plintzner, Jüterbog
The story behind the image
Here’s another historical photo that I aquired a while ago. It was shot by military photographer J. Plitzner in Jüterbog, just south of Berlin in Germany. It is related to the 1886 photo showing the quartermasters of Jüterbog.
It shows a group of prussian soldiers firing a cannon. Plitzner must have been a true expert because he captured exactly the moment when flames came out of the gun barrel. Wow! I had always been under the impression that the photographers of the 1880s were plagued by long exposure times. But not Plitzner! So this deserves a double-wow!
However, a closer inspection of the photo reveals that the photo apparently has been edited. The clouds of flames just do not match the rest of the image. They look artificial, almost like painted.
Also, they are shown in front of what could be the large trunk of a tree that stands next to the right edge of the image – but that trunk seems to disappear when you follow it towards the bottom.
I guess that J. Plitzner took many photos of the soldiers being trained in Jüterbog. And he knew that he wouldn’t be able to capture the exact moment of the release with real flames, and if he did, he would have required several shots to get it right. This was probably not an economical option.
So, Plitzner probably used a handdrawn or painted template showing the explosion and added this during the development to all the prints, resulting in an impressive looking photo, the perfect gift for family and friends. I have not yet found other photos of Plitzner from that period showing shooting trainings, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d all show the same explosion.
Key learning: The early photography masters were already masters in efficient photo production.
P.S.: If you want to know more about Jüterbog, I found a stunning page covering the historical development of Jüterbog (in German.)
The high resolution image
| Capture Date | 1883 |
| Photographer | J. Plintzner, Jüterbog |
| Location | Jüterbog, Germany |
| Image Source | Albumen print from a glass negative, mounted, CdV format (c. 8.4 x 5.2 cm) |
| 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 | 8830 x 4850 Pixels |
| Copyright | Photo: J. Plintzner, Jüterbog Scan & Edit: Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com |
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