Valentin Wolfenstein
{{Short description|Swedish-American photographer}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Valentin Wolfenstein
| image = Valentin Wolfenstein 1880-tal.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Valentin Wolfenstein, circa 1880
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1845|4|19}}
| birth_place = Falun, Sweden
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1909|2|3|1845|4|19}}
| death_place = Los Angeles, US
| other_names = {{Plainlist|
- August Valentin Wolfenstein
- Valentine Wolfenstein
}}
| occupation = Photographer
| known_for = Flash photography
}}
File:Wolfenstein LA gallery 1885.jpg
File:1909 Victor Flash Lamp.jpg
Valentin Wolfenstein (19 April 1845 – 3 February 1909) was a Swedish-American photographer who worked both in Stockholm and Los Angeles, California. He was one of the first photographers to use flash-lamps for photography.
He owned the first successful photography studio in Los Angeles where he photographed many famous Californians in the 1870s in 1880s.{{cite web |url=http://www.westadamsheritage.org/slideshow/1208 |title=2008 Living Historic Tour |author= |date=2008 |publisher=West Adams Heritage Association |access-date=2014-07-28 |archive-date=2021-04-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419002554/https://westadamsheritage.org/slideshow/1208 |url-status=live }}
After returning to Sweden, Wolfenstein owned Atelier Jaeger, the official court photographer's studio in Stockholm, from 1890 to 1905. He was a pioneer in his field and possibly the first in Sweden to make interior pictures in theaters using flash-lamp photography.{{sfn|Söderberg|Rittsel|1983|p=63}} He took pictures of theater scenes and actors' dressing rooms.{{sfn|Söderberg|Rittsel|1983|p=63}} A particular skill he developed was taking "look-alike pictures", a double exposure technique that combined images of the same person in two different poses, for example, sitting and standing.{{sfn|Söderberg|Rittsel|1983|p=63}}
Early life
Wolfenstein was born August Valentin Wolfenstein on 19 April 1845 in Falun. His parents were Viktor Adolf Wolfenstein (1817–1881) and Anna Elisabeth Brostrom (1807–1851).Ancestry.com "Wolfenstein Family Tree" He emigrated to the United States during the American Civil War and enlisted{{clarify|date=July 2015}} in New York City on 31 January 1865.Ancestry.com Military records After the war he worked as a photographer in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he had a photography studio in 1867.{{sfn|Söderberg|Rittsel|1983|p=163}}
He established a studio in Los Angeles in 1871 on the second floor of New Temple Block in Downtown Los Angeles.{{sfn|Palmquist|2000|p=434}} Here he bought the services of Henri Penelon, a French painter, for color tinting portraits.{{sfn|Andrews|1964|p=83}} He is also listed as still being at Temple Block in 1875 in the Los Angeles city directory.Ancestry.com U.S. City Directories 1821–1989
Mid-life
Wolfenstein married Philopena Brown (1863–1884) on 26 February 1884 while he was in New Bedford. They had a daughter the same year, named Florentina. Philopena died later that year. He then married Clara Brown (1868–1892). They had two sons, Robert (1889–1977) and Walter (1890 – d. before 1909). When he failed at some Los Angeles side businesses in the 1880s, he sought new surroundings and went to Guatemala and Mexico where he ran photographic studios.{{sfn|Andrews|1964|p=83}}
He returned to Sweden in the 1890s, sometime after Clara died, and settled in Stockholm, where he became an employee of the royal photographer Johannes Jaeger at his studio, Atelier Jaeger.{{cite web|url=http://www.modernamuseet.se/sv/Stockholm/Utstallningar/2001/Staden-som-livsrum1/Biografier/ |title=Biografier – Moderna Museet |publisher=Modernamuseet.se |date=2001-11-02 |access-date=2014-07-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130624045657/http://www.modernamuseet.se/sv/Stockholm/Utstallningar/2001/Staden-som-livsrum1/Biografier/ |archive-date=June 24, 2013 }}{{cite web|url=http://www9.vgregion.se/vastarvet/objekt.aspx?id=VGM_B145198_644 |title=Västarvet – Västergötlands museum – Objekt VGM_B145198_644 |publisher=vgregion.se |access-date=2014-07-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140325143416/http://www9.vgregion.se/vastarvet/objekt.aspx?id=VGM_B145198_644 |archive-date=March 25, 2014}} In the 1890s, Wolfenstein established a photographic studio at Drottninggatan 33 in Stockholm. When Jaeger moved back to Germany, his home country, Wolfenstein bought both of his studios for 60,000 kronor.{{cite web |url=http://nfr.nordiskamuseet.se/Auktoritet.aspx?Id=4899&InstansId=1160 |title=Nationella fotografregistret |publisher=Nfr.nordiskamuseet.se |access-date=2014-07-27 |archive-date=2014-08-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140811183512/http://nfr.nordiskamuseet.se/Auktoritet.aspx?Id=4899&InstansId=1160 |url-status=live }} Wolfenstein continued to call the studio of 30 employees by its original name "Atelier Jaeger", because of its already established reputation as the official court photographer.{{cite web |url=http://s93883215.onlinehome.us/adamjaneiro/2008/08/18th-annual-living-history-tour.html |title=Recentering El Pueblo: 18th Annual Living History Tour |publisher=S93883215.onlinehome.us |date=2008-08-23 |access-date=2014-07-27 |archive-date=2022-03-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220326043713/http://s93883215.onlinehome.us/adamjaneiro/2008/08/18th-annual-living-history-tour.html |url-status=live }}
Later life and death
Wolfenstein sold Atelier Jaeger in 1905 and returned to the United States.Ancestry.com "New York, Passenger Lists, 1820–1957" and "Passenger lists, 1869–1951 of Gothenburg, Sweden" Albin Roosval and Herman Sylwander, who took over his studios, kept the same original name for the studio.{{sfn|Söderberg|Rittsel|1983|p=34}}
Wolfenstein died in Los Angeles on 3 February 1909 at the age of 63.{{cite web |url=https://runeberg.org/svriks24/ |title=Sveriges riksdag 1924 : porträttalbum |publisher=Runeberg.org |access-date=2014-07-27 |archive-date=2014-07-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140702145630/http://runeberg.org/svriks24/ |url-status=live }} He is buried at Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery in Central Los Angeles.{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-sep-26-me-honor26-story.html |title=Bringing a Buffalo Soldier back to life |work=Los Angeles Times |date=2008-09-26 |access-date=2014-07-27 |archive-date=2014-08-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812153724/http://articles.latimes.com/2008/sep/26/local/me-honor26 |url-status=live }}
Photography work
File:Johannes Jaeger duppelgångarebild 1890.jpg|Wolfenstein's "look-alike"
of his boss John Jaeger
sitting and standing
File:Svenska Teatern Orfeus 1894.jpg|1894 flash photography of scene in Swedish Theatre taken by Wolfenstein
File:Tiburcio Vasquez 1874.jpg|Wolfenstein took this photo of outlaw Tiburcio Vasquez behind the Los Angeles jail on May 18, 1874.
File:Barboncito.jpg| "Man holding rifle", 1868 Navajo chief Barboncito
File:Chief Manuelito with his wife Juanita and their son.jpg|Navajo chief Manuelito with his wife and son, 1868
File:Barboncito mica se qui 1868.jpg|Daughter-in-law of chief Barboncito, "Mica se qui", 1868
File:Three Navaho.jpg|Manuelito, Barboncito, and Navajo boy and man, 1868
{{Clear}}
Personal pictures
References
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}
Bibliography
- {{cite book|last=Andrews|first=Ralph Warren |title=Picture Gallery Pioneers, 1850 to 1875|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NPRCAAAAIAAJ|year=1964|publisher=Superior Publishing Company}}
- {{cite book|last1=Söderberg|first1=Rolf |last2=Rittsel|first2=Pär |title=Den svenska fotografins historia 1840–1940 The Swedish history of photography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5dNKOgAACAAJ|year=1983|publisher=Bonnier fakta|isbn=978-91-34-50314-4}}
- {{cite book|last=Palmquist|first=Peter E. |title=Pioneer Photographers of the Far West: A Biographical Dictionary, 1840–1865|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nne4L9h27RsC&pg=PA434|year=2000|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-3883-5}}
External links
- {{Find a Grave|23696205}}
{{Commons category|Valentin Wolfenstein|position=left}}
{{Authority control (arts)|country=SV}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfenstein, Valentin}}
Category:American portrait photographers
Category:Photographers from Los Angeles
Category:Artists from Stockholm
Category:Burials at Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery
Category:Swedish emigrants to the United States
Category:19th century in Los Angeles