In Denmark, photography 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.
Pioneers Mads Alstrup and Georg Emil Hansen paved the way for a rapidly growing profession during the last half of the 19th century while both artistic and press photographers have made internationally recognized contributions. Although Denmark was slow to accept photography as an art form, Danish photographers are now increasingly active, participating in key exhibitions around the world."FOTO: New Photography from Denmark. Scandinavia House – The Nordic Center in America USA. New York, 20 Sep – 11 Nov 2006 ." Photography-now.com. Retrieved 6 February 2010."Evénements et Expositions. Entre réalité et imaginaire. " Maison du Danemark, Paris. Retrieved 6 February 2010.
Among Denmark's most successful contemporary photographers are Jacob Aue Sobol, who gained recognition for portraits of his Greenlandic girlfriend, and Per Bak Jensen, who introduced a new perspective to modern landscape photography. Press photography has prospered too under Jan Grarup and Claus Bjørn Larsen, who have covered wars and conflicts of global importance over the past 20 years.
History
Daguerreotypes
Christian Tuxen Falbe, a Danish marine officer, was in Paris in January 1839 on behalf of Crown Prince Frederik when Louis Daguerre revealed the art of daguerreotyping. Falbe informed the Crown Prince of a visit to Daguerre where he had seen some of the very earliest daguerreotypes, explaining how impressed he had been by the new process and how important he thought it would be for art and science in Denmark.Jannie Uhre Ejstrud, "Denmark", in John Hannavy, ed., Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography (London: Routledge, 2007; ), vol. 1. Here at Google Books. Retrieved 10 February 2010. Shortly afterwards, he returned to Copenhagen with a camera and a couple of his own daguerreotypes for the Crown Prince who, believing them to be of scientific importance, deposited them with Hans Christian Ørsted, one of Denmark's most prominent scientists."Christian Tuxen Falbe". Den store Danske. Retrieved 28 January 2010. As a result of Ørsted's own interest in photography, the new art took on rapidly: the daguerreotypist Mads Alstrup (1809–76) opened Copenhagen's first photographic studio in 1842;Jan-Erik Lundström, "Scandinavia", in Robin Lenman, ed., The Oxford Companion to the Photograph (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005; ); reproduced within "Photography Encyclopedia. Scandinavia", answers.com. Retrieved 28 January 2010.Marie-Louise Berner, "Mads Alstrups virksomhed som daguerreotypist 1842–1858 ", Fund og Forskning, Bind 40 (2001), Tidsskrift.dk. Retrieved 28 January 2010. and by 1850 there were over a hundred studios in Copenhagen and many more in the provinces."Danmark – Fotografi". Den store Danske. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
The oldest photograph on record in Denmark is credited to Peter Faber (1810–1877), a songwriter and a pioneer in telegraphy. His daguerreotype of Ulfeldts Plads is in the Copenhagen City Museum. The image of the square is in fact reversed left to right, as was normal for daguerreotypes unless a mirror was used together with the camera. Careful analysis of the photograph suggests that it dates back to July 1840. The exposure time of about 15 minutes in sunlight explains why the only figure to be seen is a man sleeping at the foot of the Pillar of Shame towards the left of the picture.Marie-Louise Berner, "Danmarks første fotografi – Ulfeldts Plads juni 1840 ," Tidskrift.dk. In Danish with short English summary. Retrieved 2 February 2010.
Its status in the history of Danish photography is rivalled by a portrait of Bertel Thorvaldsen sitting at an easel outside his studio in the garden of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts at Charlottenborg Palace in Copenhagen. This daguerreotype was taken by the French photographer Aymard Charles Théodore Neubourg, who visited Copenhagen in the summer of 1840. An examination of the circumstances under which it was taken reveals that the date was Sunday, 26 July 1840.Marie-Louise Berner, "Bertel Thorvaldsen: a daguerreotype portrait from 1840", Museum Tusculanum Press and Marie-Louise Berner, Copenhagen 2005. Google Books reference to p. 59 et seq available from here . Retrieved 5 April 2010. It has also been noticed that Thorvaldsen is making the horn sign with what apparently is his left hand although, as a result of the daguerreotype mirror effect, it is actually his right hand. This has been ascribed to the anxiety he must have experienced while facing the new mechanical device which could reveal even the slightest detail."Aymard Charles Théodore Neubourg: Thorvaldsen 1840", Thorvaldsens Museum. Retrieved 5 April 2010."Description of Bertel Thorvaldsen: A Daguerreotype Portrait from 1840", Krisostomos. Retrieved 5 April 2010.
Several Danes are remembered for their contributions to daguerreotypy. While in Paris in 1848, Anton Melbye (1818–1875), a marine artist, learnt from Daguerre."Anton Melbye", Den store Danske. Retrieved 6 February 2010. Rudolph Striegler, Johan Emilius Bogh and Johan Ludvig Ussing were among those who began to specialize in portrait photography opening studios in Copenhagen and the provinces.Marie-Louise Berner, "En profession bliver til", in Dansk Fotografihistorie, ed. Mette Sandbye (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2004), p. 30. .
Georg Emil Hansen (1833–1891) from Næstved came from a family of photographers. When his father, Carl Christian Hansen, opened a studio in Copenhagen, he decided to open one of his own. He became one of the most respected photographers of his day, with Christian IX of Denmark and the Danish Royal Family as customers in the early 1860s. He also excelled in adopting new techniques. He was the first to use paper prints and to make full-length portrait enlargements. He received awards for his exhibitions in London (1862) and Berlin (1865). In 1867, together with his brother, Niels Christian Hansen, and two other photographers, he set up a photographic firm which later became Hansen, Schou & Weller, suppliers to the royal Danish court.Jannie Uhre Ejstrud, "Hansen, Georg E. (1833–1891)", in John Hannavy, ed., Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography, vol. 1. Here at Google Books. Retrieved 3 February 2010.
Carte de visite photography
The technique of carte de visite photography was brought to Denmark by Rudolph Striegler in 1860. It spread rapidly and by the 1870s provided a cheap and attractive alternative to portrait painting for photographers such as Ludvig Grundtvig (1836–1901) and Adolph Lønborg (1835–1916) in Copenhagen, and Heinrich Tønnies (1856–1903) who opened a studio in Aalborg."Johan Georg Heinrich Ludwig Tönnies", Gravsted.dk. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
Heinrich Tønnies (1825–1903) remains to date one of the premier CDV photographers of Denmark. In June 1856 he began his photographic career as a partner under C. Fritsche in Aalborg and by December of the same year he bought his partner's share of the business and struck out with a studio under his own name. By 1861, Tönnies' business boomed requiring a larger studio and the hiring of assistants, and by 1870 he became a Danish citizen. Ultimately, his family business spanned three-generations and 75 years. The breadth of his photographic products included: Daguerreotypes, calotypes, pannotypes, photo-lithography, stereoscopy, ambrotypes, CDVs, and medallions. It is believed that he produced no less than 75,000 CDVs, many ordered in relation to a large wave of emigration from Nordjylland to North America. Owing to the poverty of Denmark's Vendsyssel region, local demands for inexpensive CDVs persisted in Aalborg right up until World War I, making Tönnies' studio one of the last to produce CDVs in Denmark.
Pietro Boyesen (1819–1882) was a Danish photographer who spent most of his professional life in Rome. Boyesen had a talent for composition and characterization. In contrast to the boring studio portraits which were so common at the time, Boyesen would have his subjects pose outdoors in intimate Roman settings. By playing with the subjects clothes and their relationship to the surroundings, Boyesen would produce works presenting a somewhat timid but intimate charm."Peter (Pietro) Thyge Boyesen (1819–1882) Fotograf" in Inge-Lise og Steen Neergaard, "Vi kom fra Danmark", Books on Demand Gmbh, Copenhagen. . Online access here
Frederikke Federspiel (1839–1913) was one of the first female photographers in Denmark. At the age of 35, she received training in photography from her family in Hamburg, Germany, where her uncle, Poul Friedrich Lewitz, her aunt and cousins were all photographers. In 1876, when registering her business in Aalborg, she became one of the first officially recognized female photographers in Denmark when she gave her profession as "Photographin", a German word which clearly shows that she was a woman. Specializing in portraits, she also became one of the earliest female members of the Dansk Fotografisk Forening in 1883. One of the first to experiment with magnesium powder for flash, she installed electric lamps in her studio when electricity came to Aalborg in 1901.Bente Jensen, "Frederikke Federspiel (1839–1913): Federspiel, Frederikke Jakobine", Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon. Retrieved 1 February 2010.
Kristen Feilberg (1839–1919) stands as another Danish photographer known mainly for his images captured far beyond the borders of Denmark. From the 1860s until the 1890s, Feilberg participated in expeditions to Sumatra, Singapore, and Penang. In 1867, he exhibited photos at an exhibition in Paris and in 1870 he joined an expedition to the Batak lands of East Sumatra, where he successfully recorded scores of ethnographic images."Anceaux Glasses: II. Photography in colonial context, Dutch East Indies". Retrieved 8 October 2010.
Christian Hedemann (1852–1932) counts as among the earliest Danish photographers who emigrated the farthest distance. Though educated in Denmark, he left Copenhagen in 1878 and settled in Hawaii. Primarily occupied as a mechanical engineer at the Hana Sugar Plantation, Island of Maui, and later as a technical manager at the Honolulu Iron Works, as an avid amateur photographer he helped found the Hawaiian Camera Club (1889–1893). He became an American citizen in 1903 and in 1909 accepted an appointment as Danish Consul. His remarkable photographs of the Hawaiian royal family and native social elites remain as some of the earliest images available of pre-annexed Hawaii.Lynn Ann Davis, "From the King's Peaceful Copenhagen The Work of Danish Amateur Photographer Christian Hedemann in the Hawaiian Islands" , Fund og Forskning, (1981 - 1990), Bind 29. Retrieved 6 October 2010.
Mary Steen (1856–1939) was a successful photographer in Copenhagen, pioneering indoor photography with pictures of families inside their own homes. Later, as court photographer, she not only photographed the royal family in Denmark but also spent some time in London where she photographed Queen Victoria. She did much to improve working conditions for women and her example encouraged many women to become professional photographers.Tove Thage, "Mary Steen (1856–1939): Steen, Mary Dorthea Frederikke", Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon. Retrieved 14 February 2010.