Mads Alstrup (1808-1876) was the first Danish portrait photographer with his own studio. For 16 years, he produced an enormous number of daguerreotypes, in Copenhagen and the provinces, before his business suffered from the financial crisis of 1857. He moved to Sweden in 1858 and continued to take portraits there for the remainder of his life. He is considered to be one of Denmark's pioneers in the practice of photography.
Born in Viborg and trained as a goldsmith, Alstrup initially had a business in Randers in Jutland. In the summer of 1842, he moved to Copenhagen and set up a daguerreotype studio behind the Hercules Pavilion in the Rosenborg Gardens. In this popular area of the city, he had no difficulty in finding clients interested in having their portraits taken. [1]
From 1843 to 1848, he travelled around Denmark, spending a few days or weeks in different towns where he set up temporary studios. In 1849, he finally settled in Copenhagen, opening a studio at a central location on Østergade near Kongens Nytorv.
While Alstrup was by no means an artist, he was a competent tradesman and, unlike some of the more artistic photographers of his day, he could run a profitable business. Constantly investing in new equipment, the quality of his work improved year by year. Indeed, it is estimated he produced some 33,000 daguerreotypes in the 16 years he worked in Denmark. [2]
After leaving Denmark in 1857, Alstrup moved to Sweden where he travelled from place to place, much as he had done in his early Danish career. In 1859 he was in Hälsingborg and Kristianstad and in 1860, Gothenburg where he stayed for a few years. In 1863, he practiced in Malmö with G.S. Ekeund. He died in Falun, Sweden, in 1876. [3]
The daguerreotype process, or daguerreotypy, was the first publicly available photographic process, widely used during the 1840s and 1850s.
Photography in Australia started in the 1840s. The first photograph taken in Australia, a daguerreotype of Bridge Street, Sydney, was taken in 1841.
John Jabez Edwin Paisley Mayall was an English photographer who in 1860 took the first carte-de-visite photographs of Queen Victoria.
Jeremiah Gurney, was an American daguerreotype photographer operating in New York.
John Plumbe Jr. was a Welsh-born American entrepreneurial photographer, gallerist, publisher, and an early advocate of an American transcontinental railroad in the mid-19th century. He established a franchise of photography studios in the 1840s in the U.S., with additional branches in Paris and Liverpool. He created a lithographic process for reproducing photographic images, called the "plumbeotype."
Photography in Denmark has developed from strong participation and interest in the very beginnings of the art in 1839 to the success of a considerable number of Danes in the world of photography today.
Georg Emil Hansen (1833–1891) was one of Denmark's pioneering photographers in the second half of the 19th century. He had his own studio in Copenhagen and later became a successful court photographer.
Rudolph Striegler (1816–1876) was one of Denmark's early photographers, specialising in portrait photography.
Ludvig Grundtvig was a Danish photographer and portrait painter. He based many of his later paintings on his own photographs.
Rigmor Mydtskov was a Danish court photographer who is remembered for her portraits of artists performing in Danish theatres but especially for her many portraits of Queen Margrethe and other members of the Danish royal family.
Ib Jesper Brieghel Høm was a Danish photographer and film director. After opening his own studio in Copenhagen, he travelled widely, finally working for Agence VISA in Paris. Høm was a co-founder of Copenhagen's Delta Photos, an organization designed to inspire and assist press photographers. Most of the remainder of his career was devoted to film, where he participated in the making of several Danish films as cinematographer, screenwriter and director.
Niels Sigfred Nebelong was a Danish architect who worked in the Historicist style. He was city architect in Copenhagen from 1863 and also designed many lighthouses around Denmark in his capacity as resident architect for the Danish lighthouse authority.
François Fauvel Gouraud was a French expert in photography and mnemonics.
Carl Caspar Giers was a German-born American photographer active primarily in Nashville, Tennessee, in the mid-19th century. In documenting Nashville's rapid postwar growth and expansion, he photographed numerous prominent individuals, including political leaders, Civil War generals, and important business and cultural figures. A popular resident of the city, he served one term in the Tennessee House of Representatives (1874–1875), having been the nominee of both the Democratic and Republican parties.
Brita Sofia Hesselius (1801–1866) was a Swedish daguerreotype photographer. She was likely the first professional female photographer of her country.
Frederick Gutekunst was an American photographer. His photographic career started in 1856 in Philadelphia and his business grew during the Civil War. After the war his reputation was known outside of Philadelphia and the military so that distinguished individuals were coming to having their portrait made by the master. Eventually, the Gutekunst studio became a photographic industry with two studios in Philadelphia and a large photo reproduction press. He continued working until he died in 1917 from Bright's Disease. When comparing the overall number of portraits made by Gutekunst and other studios in Philadelphia during the same period one can find similar quality work being accomplished, but photographs with the name Gutekunst on them are of a consistent high quality in different sizes and throughout the years and it is this consistency that made him the Dean of American Photographers.
Elise L’Heureux was a photographer from Quebec City, Quebec. L’Heureux's work was prominent during the Victorian Era. At that time, art moved towards romanticism and mysticism in connection with social values and the arts.
This is a timeline of women in photography tracing the major contributions women have made to both the development of photography and the outstanding photographs they have created over the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
Richard Ellis was a British-Maltese photographer who was one of the pioneers of photography in Malta during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born into a Welsh family in London, he travelled throughout Europe as a circus performer before settling down in Malta at the age of nineteen. Within a few years he had opened a studio in Valletta, and he became a renowned photographer. His archive of tens of thousands of photographs still exists, and his work is significant for both its historic value and technical quality. His work is now in the public domain according to the law of Malta.
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mads Alstrup . |
