An undated CdV photo shows a girl with a doll in a photo studio in Potsdam, Germany. Photo: Photograph. Atelier HM, Potsdam
The story behind the image
This photo of a girl with a doll was shot in a studio in Potsdam, Germany, probably between 1900 and 1910. The photographer has positioned the girl with a doll in front of a background that shows a plain room.
The negative plate had been edited, probably to cover a tripod that was used to hold the head and neck steady. This was a common practice, like shown on this photo from 1893.
Also, it’s kind of funny to discover photos taken in the same studio with the same background over the years.
Across the world, the photo business was booming in the 1890s and throughout the first decade of the 20th century. The number of photographers and studios was growing quickly. As a consequence, prices were dropping and quality went up.
This was true for Potsdam as well. While the 1891 adress book of Potsdam listed just 10 photo studios, this number had doubled by 1900. Several photographers were moving to the Brandenburger Straße, which used to be the ‘High Street’ of the city. The dynamics of the photo industry were clearly visible here, confirmed by several studios opening, closing, and changing ownership over the years.
This photo was shot at the Photograph. Atelier HM which was located in Brandenburger Straße 30.
Interestingly, this studio does not show up in any of the address books from that period. Thousands of photos have been shot here, apparently, but no mentions in the address book? Why? I found the answer when looking up who resided in building number 30: a convenience store (“Hirsch, M., Warenhaus (Inh.: Kaufmann Jul. Rubinski”)! The initials were a match, so I guess this studio had been an additional service for the customers of the store. It might have been slightly cheaper than the professional studios a few steps down the road. Maybe you did not require a formal reservation and could simply show up and wait for your session? This also explains why no photographer name is associated to the studio. All photos I’ve seen just mention “Photograph. Atelier HM” – it’s never revealed who this HM actually was.
Finally, the back of the photo carries the ID 39, while other photos from that studio show four-digit and even five-digit numbers. The highest being 15999. Apparently the numbers represented a sequential order (but I am not really sure about it.) So it could well be that this photo was from the early days of the studio, or maybe even a test shot as a proof-of-concept.
The high resolution image
| Capture Date | c. 1900 |
| Photographer | Photograph. Atelier HM Potsdam |
| Location | Potsdam, Germany |
| Image Source | 6 x 8.9 cm CdV |
| 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 | 5736 x 8400 Pixels |
| Copyright | © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com/Photo: Photograph. Atelier HM Potsdam |
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