CIRCA 1900 – Boy With Toy Horse, Kiel, Germany. Photo: Georg Billström, Kiel
The story behind the image
Here’s a historic photo I acquired a while ago. It shows a boy with a toy horse in the photo studio of Georg Billström in Kiel, Germany. The photo just carries the handwritten comment “Vati” (lit. “dad”) on the back, so it will remain entirely unclear who this boy actually was.
However, looking at the work abnd life of Georg Billström, we can safely say that it was shot between 1897 and 1901, because the studio adress mentioned on the back is Vorstadt 9. Before 1897, the studio was located in Holstenstraße 22, a few steps closer to the city center. After 1901, the Holstenstraße was prolonged to include the street called Vorstadt, and the building Vorstadt 9 became Holstenstraße 43 and remained until WW2. Read more about Georg Billström and his life.
The CdV photo print was in a very bad condition. It has faded over time and shows countless scratches all over the surface. Yet, I liked the topic and composition so much that I took the effort to restore the image digitally. While I could not remove all the scratches and spots, the image became much clearer.
Mr. Billström advertised that his speciality were children’s photos, and I guess he had a number of smaller toys in his studio, possibly including this horse. Of course, it could also be that this horse was the favorite toy of the boy, and the family brought it to the studio as a prop. We don’t know. Anyway, the assembly looks like an early version of a skateboard (if you ignore the horse mounted to the board.)
I have no idea why the boy looks so serious and tired, almost sad. Probably he was told to “hold still” for the duration of the exposure which could be pretty long. It could also be that parents preferred serious images as photography was still a serious business, created to last forever.
For you enthusiasts of historic images, here’s a 1:1 comparison between the unedited, color-calibrated scan of the CdV and its digitally re-mastered version. Gone are countless scratches and dust particles:
Design ideas
The high resolution image
| Capture Date | c. 1900 |
| Photographer | Georg Billström, Kiel |
| Location | Kiel, Germany |
| Image Source | Albumen print from a glass negative, mounted, CdV format (c. 6.2 x 9 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 | 5145 x 7271 Pixels |
| Copyright | Photo by Georg Billström, Kiel Scan by Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com |
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