UNDATED – Portrait of a gentleman in a photo studio in Hamburg © by Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com/Photo: Hermann Tietz, Hamburg
The story behind the image
Here’s a CdV photo that I purchased recently. It shows a gentleman in a photo studio in Hamburg, Germany. Sadly, the image does not carry any notes or dates, so it is difficult to find out more about the gentleman.
I like his look and posture. He seems to be too young to require a walking stick so I guess this was just a contemporary prop provided by the photographer. His clothes indicate a shooting date between 1895 and 1910.
This is confirmed by the fact that the photo was captured at the retail store called ‘Waarenhaus Hermann Tietz’ which opened its doors in March 1897 at the address Großer Burstah 12-14 in Hamburg. In 1912 it relocated to the more prestigious location at Jungfernstieg and became Alsterhaus in 1935. The Tietze family successfully continued business growth to become one of the largest retail chains in Germany, operating at its peak around 115 stores under various brands across Germany. (Read more about it on Wikipedia, in German.)
In the second half of the first decade of the 20th century, Tietz added a new logo (showing the letter ‘T’) to the photos created in his store. This enables us to more precisely date the photo: it must have been shot between 1900 and 1905.
Design ideas
The high resolution image
| Capture Date | c. 1902 |
| Location | Hamburg, Germany |
| Photographer | Waarenhaus Hermann Tietz |
| Image Source | 6 x 9 cm Carte de Visite (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 | 5457 x 8092 Pixels |
| Copyright | Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com/Photo: Waarenhaus Hermann Tietz |
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