UNDATED – Portrait of two young ladies. © by Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com/Photo: Ludwig Schöss
The story behind the image
Here’s an old cabinet photo that I purchased a while ago (and accidently as I have to admit.) It shows two young ladies in a photo studio in Eutin, Germany. From looking at the photo I really cannot say whether they are two sisters or mother and daughter. I’d tend to say they are sisters, though. As the image does not carry any notes or exact dates, it is hard to find out more about it. Yet I like the image which is why I am sharing it here.
However, we can at least estimate its production date. It must have been shot between October 1892 and about 1910, because this was the period when Ludwig Schöss was actively working as a photographer.
Schöss had taken over the studio from the early photo master Adolph Friedrich Knoop (1823-1904) in October 1892. Knoop had opened the first photo studio in Eutin around 1858 and operated the business for more than three decades until it was taken over by Schöss. Knoop was 69 years old by that time and was probably preparing for retirement.
The photo market had changed significantly over the years. Modern technology had made professional photo services afforable for the masses, and photographers were opening studios everywhere. The town of Eutin was not different in this respect. A big competitor was Albert Giesler who had opened his studio in 1886 and achieved the status of official photographer of the Oldenburg court in 1892. This certainly attracted many new customers. But the growing market was big enough to support all these studios, at least for a while.
So, Ludwig Johann Heinrich Schöss acquired the business from A.F. Knoop in 1892. And soon after, on the 28th March of 1893 , he got married to Johanna Louise Friederike Schöfs in Lübeck. When his son Ludwig Janik Heinrich Schöss (who was born in September 1907) got baptized in Eutin, the church record still mentioned the job title ‘photographer’ for the father.
In 1913, however, his son Ernst Otto (born in 1898) got confirmed in Eutin, and Schöss’ job title was recorded as ‘writer’, which probably meant ‘Government Secretary’. So at some point in time between 1907 and 1913, Schöss must have quit the photo business and moved to a new role. Was it because of health problems?
He died near Eutin in 1928, at the age of 69, from a lung disease. This was common among early photographers as they were often carelessly exposed themselves to dangerous fluids and fumes in their labs.
Design ideas
The high resolution image
| Capture Date | c. 1900 |
| Location | Eutin, Germany |
| Photographer | Ludwig Schöss |
| Image Source | 9.7 x 14 cm black & white cabinet photo |
| 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 | 9180 x 13129 Pixels |
| Copyright | Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com/Photo: Ludwig Schöss |
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