1889 – The busy harbour of Hamburg in Germany. © Mark Zanzig/Photo: v. Römmler & Jonas
The story behind the image
The other day I acquired a small lot of photos, postcards, and cabinet cards. This was the image that grabbed my attention when I saw the listing. Well, not exactly the image you see above – but I saw its potential.
The image shows the busy harbour of Hamburg in Germany in 1889 at a time when the economy was rapidly increasing thanks to industrialization and global delivery routes. I had seen early photos of the harbour but never worked on a cabinet card myself. Now I had the opportunity.
I like the result, especially considering the poor condition of the original card. The remnants of adhesive tape were bad, and the coffee (?) spots did not help either:
But an hour or so of editing recovered the image as it was probably intended by the photographers, von Römmler & Jonas. Funnily enough, I shot an image of the harbour in 2023 from almost the same location, more than 130 years later.
Needless to say, as a child of the coast I simply love the image.
The high resolution image
| Capture Date | 1889 |
| Photographers | von Römmler & Jonas, Dresden |
| Location | Hamburg, Germany |
| Image Source | Cabinet photo (c. 10.8 x 16.7 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 | 13771 x 8815 Pixels |
| Copyright | Photo © v. Römmler & Jonas Scan © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com |
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