An undated CdV photo shows a studio portrait of a sailor in his uniform in Eisenach, Germany. Photo: Paul Fröbel, Eisenach
The story behind the image
This undated portrait photo shows an unknown sailor in the photo studio of Paul Fröbel in Eisenach, Germany. The back of the photo in Carte-de-Visite (CdV) format just show a handwritten question mark, so we will probably never know how that sailor is, and on which ships he was on duty.
This image was part of the Roessler lot I acquired a couple of years ago, so it is probably linked in some way to the family. I think it is interesting that this photo was shot in Eisenach which is far away from any German coast. Most photographs of sailors were taken in their home harbors, like Kiel or Flensburg. However, this photo was shot roughly 450 km south of Kiel.
So, we can safely assume that he was a sailor on holiday, probably visiting his family in Eisenach before returning to the troops.
Little is known about Paul Fröbel. He showed up in Eisenach address book between from 1900 to 1920 under various locations, with the last one being Jakobsplan 11, so he had been working as a photographer for at least two decades. (He does not show up anymore in the 1938/39 issue, though.) There is no record at fotorevers.eu and there are no images for sale at popular antique photo vendors. So he probably had focused just on portrait photography – and will remain a bit of a mystery, alas to me.
Whatever, I like his image of this unknown sailor.
The high resolution image
| Capture Date | unknown |
| Photographer | Paul Fröbel |
| Location | Eisenach, Germany |
| Image Source | c. 4.4 x 10.4 cm cabinet photo mounted on cardboard |
| 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 | 4175 x 9792 Pixels |
| Copyright | © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com/Photo: Paul Fröbel |
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