HF The History of Photography 600pág

15 8 The early years of photography
addendum dated 1 August 1841 the manufacturers stated that 4 to 15 seconds in the
shade, or one second in sunshine, was now sufficient.
The chemical acceleration referred to was due to the Viennese civil servant FRANZ
KRA TOCHWILA, who found that by exposing the iodized plate to the combined
vapours of chlorine and bromine its sensitivity was increased five times. Kratochwila
published7 his process on 19 January 1841, five weeks after ]. F. Goddard's publication
in London of bromine as an accelerator. At the beginning of March the brothers
JOHANN and JOSEPH NATTERER, Viennese students, were reported8 to have taken
portraits with the Voigtlander camera on plates subjected to the action of iodine and
chlorine vapour in 5 to 6 seconds in clear weather, and IO seconds in dull weather
reinforced with ordinary lamp-light. According to Professor Berres9 the Natterer
brothers must also be credited with having taken the first instantaneous street views
depicting people and traffic in motion. Thus chemical acceleration and the Petzval
lens combined, reduced exposures to a second-the time it took to remove and replace
the lens cap.
About this time was formed the Freie Vereinigung von Freunden der Daguerreotypie,
an informal association of about a dozen amateur daguerreotypists who met
from time to time at the Fiirstenhof on the Landstrasse, Vienna, bringing the results
of their experiments for discussion.10 The leading spirits of the group were the Professors
von Ettinghausen, Petzval and Berres, others being Voigtlander, the N atterer
brothers, Kratochwila, Anton Martin, Librarian at the Polytechnic Institute, who
later wrote several photographic handbooks, Regierungsrat Schultner, a civil servant,
Dr Joseph Johann Pohl, the apothecary Endlicher, and the photographers CARL
REISER and KARL SCHUH. The latter, a Berliner, is said to have been the first professional
portrait photographer in Vienna, with a studio at the Fiirstenhof. The exact
date is not known beyond the fact that it was in 1841. In October 1841 Reiser
daguerreotyped several members of the Bavarian royal family in Munich, and for a
short time members of the public in a glass-house put at his disposal in the botanical
gardens. Some daguerreotypes which he exhibited at the Art Society were considered
better than any hitherto seen in Munich.11
The first Petzval-Voigtlander apparatus was imported into Berlin by Sachse on
6 October 1841, and during that month JOSEPH WAWRA, a Viennese painter, availing
himself of the latest improvements took-for a few weeks-the first really satisfactory
and artistic portraits in Berlin.
Strangely enough it is not until August of the following year that we hear of the
first professional portrait studio there. It was opened at 41 Zimmerstrasse by J. c.
SCHALL, a portrait painter whose earliest traceable advertisement appeared on 16
August 1842. Within three weeks competition arose from the portrait painter JULIUS
STIBA who originally taught 'quick painting' on paper, wood, glass and porcelain in
six lessons (success guaranteed) at 64 Friedrichstrasse. For a while Stiba included
daguerreotype in his art courses, but when he found photographic portraiture more
profitable he abandoned teaching altogether.
Schall's and Stiba's studios were very primitive. Their sitters were posed in the
open courtyard, a sheet serving as background. The exposure was usually a minute
in fine weather. After two o'clock operations stopped and on dull days the 'studio'
was closed.
With the approaching Christmas season more artists turned photographer,
attracted by the prospect of lively business. As the weather became colder they were
driven indoors, but from 17 December on Schall was able to invite clients to his
heated glass-house-the first of its kind in Berlin. Berliners had apparently also their