C. 1895 – Portrait of a gentleman, taken somewhere in Germany. © by Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com
The story behind the image
Recently I came across this cabinet photo. It does not carry any further information at all. No photographer or studo name, no address, no timestamp, no handwritten notes. Nothing. The only additonal piece of context is that the image appeared within a large number of image from the Hannover area in Germany. That’s all.
This portarit is unusual because if flowers were used to frame the person in the picture, there were typically used for women. Here, the picture of a youngish man was imposed on the flower frame. I think this might have been a gift for the mother or grandmother of the man, maybe even for his wife. In any event, it was meant to survive forever.
So far, I can safely say that the image looks (almost) as good as it must have looked back in 1895 when he picked it up from the studio. So, it has survived the first 130+ years. 🙂
I like the contemporary look on his face. If you ignore the flower frame and clothes, it’s easy to imagine that this photo could be captured today, for example as part of the wedding ceremony.
I like it.
The high resolution image
| Capture Date | c. 1895 |
| Photographer | unknown |
| Location | probably Hannover, Germany |
| Image Source | 10 x 14 cm black & white print mounted to solid 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 | 9227 x 13153 Pixels |
| Copyright | © by Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com |
Zanzig.com Photo Hub 