Early daguerreotypists in Zurich - From fun-fairs to trade shows

Like many other larger cities during the boom of the industrial revolution, Zurich experienced profound social and political transformation and rapid economic expansion. The rising bourgeoisie, for whom photography as a means of representing itself seemed to have been invented, had strengthened to define the face of modern society.1 In the early days of photography, photographers had a number of opportunities to come into contact with the public. Private traders and innkeepers served as information bureaux for itinerant photographers. At annual fun-fairs, they satisfied the needs of the popular classes for entertainment, excitement and education. In trade and art clubs, in literary or natural science associations, they had the chance to exhibit their work and to take part in bourgeois leisure culture.2 Often the earliest presentations of photographic images and equipment took place there. Members of the art associations not only welcomed photography as, a useful aid for painters, but hoped it would reform their guilds. According to such expectations, photography would become the touchstone of art, separating ‘low’ from ‘high’ art: 'It is especially this sweeping of the art world clean which is one of the greatest benefits of photography.., The true artist, however. can be inspired in his intellectual mission and aided in his material position by the new process,.3 Silhouette artists, miniaturists, portraitists, lithographers and engravers had the most to fear. They had, however, the best qualifications for the new craft, and a high percentage of early photographers came from these professions. Christian Müller was a porcelain painter, Ernst Hieronymi an artist, Carl Friedrich Irminger, A. Grimminger and Johannes Ganz were lithographers. They had the advantage of being able to continue to earn their livings in their former ways but to slowly transfer to the new photographic profession. Müller and Hieronymi offered both painted and photographed portraits for a number of years. © 1998 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.