The household family album is used to collect portraits of family members as well photographs of important events. Similar trends can be witnessed at University institutions. In addition to photos of individuals, above all, there are also photos of festive occasions such as birthday celebrations, trips or academic graduation ceremonies. Unlike official photos, these images […]
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Studio, as well as amateur photography existed as individual pieces but were also collected in albums. Photo albums were on the one hand used to preserve personal memories and on the other, as a representational device for the middle-class family. They play a central role in the formation and consolidation of individual and collective identities.
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In the second half of the 20th century, in addition to film, it is above all newspapers and journals that shape the visual representation of scientists by making use of recurring motifs and formal design elements. The tableau, as shown here, stems from the press photos from the “Göttinger Tageblatt” selected by the Slovenian artist
Many of the exhibited postcards focus on the faces of the Professors. The faces almost take up the entire space and appear as if they had emerged from it. By frequently leaving the base of neck and shoulder blurry, the person is fully reduced to countenance alone. This focus is in the tradition of portrait
The postcards of the Göttingen student alliance, on each of which the portraits had an autograph-like signature, follow the style of star photographs from Weimar era cinema. From the 1920’s onwards, the major movie production companies began to offer postcard collections of their actors in order to create a deeper emotional bond with the new
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From the 1860s onwards, the new portrait medium was very popular amongst scholars. In addition to the marketing of cartes de visite by means of employing professional photo agencies to portray well- known scientists, scholars also used them as a private collectible and as bargaining currency. They sent each other portraits, tried to get a
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Due to their handy appearance, these cards could be reproduced at will and therefore played an exceptional part in the dissemination of portraits amongst scientists. Packed in small envelopes, they could easily be sent around the world by ship, carriage or train. However, cartes de visite were also exchanged in direct encounters, for example, amongst
To guarantee the authenticity of the illustrations, the copper engraver Haid created them in the presence of the original whenever possible. The painted originals were first detached from the frames, rolled up in parchment paper and, with the help of travelling tradesfolk, transported to Augsburg. A direct comparison between the oil painting by Georg Gottlob
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From 1741 onwards, the journal “Bilder-sal” was published as a ten-volume series each with ten portraits for which one could register as buyer in advance. Back then, Augsburg was a centre for manufacture and distribution of graphic portraits. Pivotal for the “Bilder-sal” was the perception, widely spread by the 18th century, that the view of
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For the graphic execution of the portrait, Haid made use of a technique, known as mezzotint from the mid 17th century. While in copperplate engraving, the dark areas and lines are created by engraving the plate, the mezzotint process is exactly the opposite: The scraper tool is used to remove the light areas from the
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