femme et chat · deux intimes

Deux intimes (fig. 4). Young woman playing with her cat. France, ca. 1900. Half of a stereographic card. RV-443542 © Roger Viollet | src getty images
Deux intimes (fig. 6). Young woman playing with her cat. France, ca. 1900. Half of a stereographic card. RV-443540 © Roger Viollet | src getty images
Portraits mondains (94). Young woman playing with her cat owing a mirror. France, ca. 1900. Half of a stereographic card. RV-443543 © Roger Viollet | src getty images
Portraits mondains (43). Young woman stroking her cat in a sofa. France, ca. 1900. Half of a stereographic card. RV-443536 © Roger Viollet | src getty images

Table Rock · Cave of the Winds

George Barker (1844-1894) ~ [Niagara Falls], ca. 1888. Albumen silver print. View of Niagara Falls taken from the base of the falls, with large boulder in foreground and footbridge in the background. | src Getty Museum Coll.
George Barker (1844-1894) ~ Cave of the winds, ca. 1888. Niagara Falls with walkway in the foreground. Albumen silver print. | src Library of Congress

This Image is hosted in four American museums; three of them (Library of Congress, Getty Museum and The Metropolitan Museum of Art) acknowledge the authorship to George Barker. According to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art [x] this photograph is Nielson’s. In their website there is a mention to the photographer’s logo on back: “H.F. Nielson, Manuf. of all kinds of / Paper & Glass Views / Niagara Falls.”

Though the commercial market for large-scale landscape views was limited in the late 19th century, a small group of talented and savvy photographers found a lucrative niche in this genre. Herman F. Nielson, who lived most of his life in Niagara, New York, specialized in majestic tourist views of Niagara Falls. Here, Nielson depicts the American Falls (Luna Falls and Bridal Veil Falls) and the Rock of Ages. This view, or a slight variant, was reproduced in a popular guidebook at the time.

“New View Manufactory,” Niagara Falls Gazette 30:16 (October 10, 1883): n.p.

quoted from The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art [x]

George Barker (1844-1894) ~ Niagara Falls, ca. 1888 Albumen silver print from glass negative | src The Met
George Barker (1844-1894) ~ Cave of the winds, ca. 1888. Image of rushing waterfalls leading down to a bridge with large rocks in the foreground. | Library of Congress
George Barker (1844-1894) ~ Ruins of Table Rock, ca. 1870. Stereograph. Albumen print on stereo card. | Library of Congress
Stereograph showing a portion of Table Rock that has fallen off the cliff, with Niagara Falls in the background. | Library of Congress

Fête des fleurs par G. Gain

Gustave Gain ~ “Fête des fleurs”, Coutainville (Agon-Coutainville, Manche), 1924 | half stereo (left)
Gustave Gain ~ “Fête des fleurs”, Coutainville (Agon-Coutainville, Manche), 1924 | src Archives de la Manche
Gustave Gain ~ “Fête des fleurs”, Coutainville (Agon-Coutainville, Manche), 1924 | half stereo (right)

Still-lifes by Lumiere Brothers

Auguste-Marie-Louis-Nicolas Lumière and Louis-Jean Lumière ~ Tulips, 1896-1903. Trichromie. Transparency. | src Getty Images
Auguste et Louis Lumière ~ Nature morte, stéréo à la gomme bichromatée sur verre. 1899-1900
Auguste et Louis Lumière ~ Nature morte, stéréo à la gomme bichromatée sur verre. 1899-1900 (Full stereo view)
Auguste-Marie-Louis-Nicolas Lumière and Louis-Jean Lumière ~ Still Life of Flowers in a Stein, 1896-1903. Trichromie. Transparency. | src Getty Images

Butterflies in stereo-view 1870s

Kilburn Brothers, No. 89. Moths and Butterflies; no date (half of stereo-card) | courtesy Alan Griffiths : Luminous-Lint (LL/37775-6)
Right side of stereographic card nº 89 (Kilburn Brothers)

The Kilburn Brothers

A partnership between Benjamin West Kilburn and his brother Edward Kilburn of Littleton, New Hampshire (USA). One of the most significant of the American photographers and publishers of stereo cards in the nineteenth century. In 1879 they patented the “warped” or “curved” stereocard which enhanced the 3D effect. In 1908 James M, Davis obtained the Kilburn negatives and later resold them to Keystone. / quoted from Luminous-lint

Kilburn Brothers :: No. 89. Moths and Butterflies; n.d. Stereoview, hand-painted 
Private collection of Michael McEachern. Courtesy Alan Griffiths / Luminous-lint

Stereo views of landscapes

Etienne Descargues :: [Femme cueillant des fleurs dans une prairie], 1892-1914. Vue stéréoscopique. | BnF ~ Gallica
Etienne Descargues :: [Femme cueillant des fleurs dans une prairie], 1892-1914. Vue stéréoscopique. | BnF ~ Gallica
Etienne Descargues :: [Femme cueillant des fleurs dans une prairie], 1892-1914. Vue stéréoscopique. (half view) | BnF ~ Gallica
Etienne Descargues :: [Femme cueillant des fleurs dans une prairie], 1892-1914. Vue stéréoscopique. | BnF ~ Gallica
Etienne Descargues :: [Femme cueillant des fleurs dans une prairie], 1892-1914. Vue stéréoscopique. | BnF ~ Gallica
Etienne Descargues :: [Femme cueillant des fleurs dans une prairie], 1892-1914. Vue stéréoscopique. (Detail) | BnF ~ Gallica
Etienne Descargues :: [Plan d’eau la nuit], 1892-1914. Vue stéréoscopique. | BnF ~ Gallica
Etienne Descargues :: [Arbres au printemps, prairie, maisons rurales], 1890-1914. Vue stéréoscopique. | BnF ~ Gallica
Etienne Descargues :: [Arbres au printemps, prairie, maisons rurales], 1892-1914. Vue stéréoscopique. | BnF ~ Gallica
Etienne Descargues :: [Arbres au printemps, prairie, maisons rurales], 1890-1914. Vue stéréoscopique. | BnF ~ Gallica
Etienne Descargues :: [Arbres au printemps, prairie, maisons rurales], 1892-1914. Vue stéréoscopique. | BnF ~ Gallica

Colored Daguerreotype (1850s)

colored daguerreotype 1850s
Finnish stereo view, colorized daguerreotype of a woman pumping milk into a bowl. 1850s | src Helsinki Photos
Finnish framed stereo image, daguerreotype. The girl is pouring milk into a bowl. 1850s | src Helsinki Photos
Finnish framed stereo image, daguerreotype. The girl is pouring milk into a bowl. 1850s | src Helsinki Photos
Finnish stereo view, colorized daguerreotype of a woman pumping milk into a bowl. 1850s | src Helsinki Photos

“The Roof of the World” 1920s

"The Roof of the World" - The Majestic Himalayas Raising in Matchless Splendor Above the Sea of Clouds to Greet the Morning Sun, Northern India; ca. 1920. First half of the stereo card | src Amon Carter Museum
“The Roof of the World” – The Majestic Himalayas Raising in Matchless Splendor Above the Sea of Clouds to Greet the Morning Sun, Northern India; ca. 1920. First half of the stereo card | src Amon Carter Museum
"The Roof of the World" - The Majestic Himalayas Raising in Matchless Splendor Above the Sea of Clouds to Greet the Morning Sun, Northern India; ca. 1920. Stereographic card. Published by Keystone View Company. | src Amon Carter Museum
“The Roof of the World” – The Majestic Himalayas Raising in Matchless Splendor Above the Sea of Clouds to Greet the Morning Sun, Northern India; ca. 1920. Stereographic card. Published by Keystone View Company. | src Amon Carter Museum
"The Roof of the World" - The Majestic Himalayas Raising in Matchless Splendor Above the Sea of Clouds to Greet the Morning Sun, Northern India; ca. 1920. Second half of the stereo card | src Amon Carter Museum
“The Roof of the World” – The Majestic Himalayas Raising in Matchless Splendor Above the Sea of Clouds to Greet the Morning Sun, Northern India; ca. 1920. Second half of the stereo card | src Amon Carter Museum

La photographie érotique

Female Nude. Attributed to Félix Jacques Moulin (French, 1802 - 1875); 1856; Albumen silver print. From «Reconsidérer la photographie érotique» | src l'œil de la photographie
Female Nude. Attributed to Félix Jacques Moulin (French, 1802 – 1875); 1856; Albumen silver print. From: Abigail Solomon-Godeau: «Reconsidérer la photographie érotique» | src l’œil de la photographie
Anonyme, Académie, vers 1845, daguerréotype. From: Abigail Solomon-Godeau: «Reconsidérer la photographie érotique» | src l'œil de la photographie
Anonyme, Académie, vers 1845, daguerréotype. From: Abigail Solomon-Godeau: «Reconsidérer la photographie érotique» | src l’œil de la photographie
Anonyme, Nu, vers 1848, daguerréotype (stereo). From: Abigail Solomon-Godeau: «Reconsidérer la photographie érotique» | src l'œil de la photograp
Anonyme, Nu, vers 1848, daguerréotype (stereo). From: Abigail Solomon-Godeau: «Reconsidérer la photographie érotique» | src l’œil de la photographie
Two Women Embracing. Unknown French maker; about 1848; Daguerreotype, hand-colored. From: Abigail Solomon-Godeau: «Reconsidérer la photographie érotique» | src l'œil de la photographie
Two Women Embracing. Unknown French maker; about 1848; Daguerreotype, hand-colored. From: Abigail Solomon-Godeau: «Reconsidérer la photographie érotique» | src l’œil de la photographie

The title is intriguing: «Reconsidérer la photographie érotique». (“Reconsidering erotic photography”).
The text itself is brilliant and of great intelligence.

In this 1987 essay, historian Abigail Solomon-Godeau traces avenues for exploring a history of erotic and pornographic photographic production, a history hitherto repressed and absent from narratives. Thus opening the door to a feminist and revised history of the photographic medium, she shows how much this imagery has been abundant and present almost from the origins of photography. In “Reconsidering erotic photography”, Abigail Solomon-Godeau analyzes the ways in which naked bodies are presented in several photographic images from the 1840s-1850s, whether academic nudes or images intended for other types of visual consumption, and questions the specificity of photographic representation as opposed to other mediums. Supporting feminist theories, she raises the question of how these images are viewed, and the ambiguity of their designation, between eroticism and pornography. At the heart of this pioneering essay in the history of photography, she defends the need to write the history of these often set aside productions.

Reconsidérer la photographie érotique.
Notes pour un projet de sauvetage historique

Abigail Solomon-Godeau
Éléonore Challine (éd. et trad.),
Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2022
quoted from l’œil de la photographie

Comet Morehouse, 1908

Edward Emerson Barnard :: Comet Morehouse, 3 stereo cards, UK, 1908. | src anamorfose
Edward Emerson Barnard :: Comet Morehouse, 3 stereo cards, UK, 1908. | src anamorfose
16645 – Morehouse’s Comet. Photographed at Yerkes Observatory, 1908. Keystone View Company. Half of original stereo card. | src MOPA ~ Museum of Photographic Arts (Chicago, USA)