1296
Societies and photo-clubs in France, as well as their
lectures and publications, have been prevailing in the
fi ght of the photography’s recognition. They allowed the
grouping of different kind of people in the same purpose.
The photographic institution, which had been divided
in the 1890s, recovered its unity after 1900 and gave
birth to the fi rst section dedicated to the photography
in a museum in 1926, in the Conservatoire national des
Arts et Métiers, a technique museum, in Paris. At last,
one of the ultimate purposes was accomplished.
Marion Perceval
See also: Londe, Albert; Marey, Etienne Jules;
Tissandier, Gaston; Wet Collodion Negative; Wet
Collodion Positive Processes; Société française de
photographie; Photo-Club de Paris; Pictorialism;
Gum Print; Emerson, Peter Henry; and Cameron,
Julia Margaret.
Further Reading
Chaline Jean-Pierre, Sociabilité et érudition. Les Sociétés savan-
tes en France, XIXe-XX siècles, Paris: Editions du Comité des
Travaux Historiques et Scientifi ques, 1995.
Gunthert André, L’institution du photographique, Etudes photo-
graphiques, no. 12, November 2002, Paris: Société française
de photographie.
Poivert Michel, Le sacrifi ce du présent, Etudes photographiques,
no. 8, november 2000, Paris: Société française de photogra-
phie.
La photographie pictorialiste en Europe 1888–1918, Le point du
jour éditeur/Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes, 2005.
Journal des sociétés photographiques, Paris, 1890–1893.
SOCIETIES, GROUPS, INSTITUTIONS,
AND EXHIBITIONS IN GERMANY
Throughout the 19th century the German speaking
countries hosted more than 100 photographic societies,
mostly on a local basis but aiming at a greater public,
too. The fi rst group of practitioners met regularly as
early as 1840 in the studio of Carl Schuh in Vienna but
there were no signifi cant implementations until 1857
when three German photographers called for the founda-
tion of a Society of German Photographers (Allgemeiner
Deutscher Photographen-Verein) following French and
English examples. Formally founded by more than 40
participants the society seemed to fl ourish within the
next years, including the initiation of its own journal
Photographisches Archiv edited by the founding fathers
Julius Schnauss and Eduard Liesegang. But in 1863 the
society ceased to exist and was basically replaced by
the freshly inaugurated Berlin Society for Photography
(Photographischer Verein zu Berlin) which was founded
by Hermann Wilhelm Vogel. He split this society into
a German Photographic Society (Deutscher Photogra-
phen-Verband) by 1867 which existed—due to political
as well as internal reasons—only for another year on
a national basis. For the next 30 years, all attempts to
organize an annual conference of German photographers
or found another society for the interests of all pho-
tographers were condemned to fail. Only in 1897, the
newly released copyright law forced 2500 photographers
to constitute a Law Protection Committee of German
Photographers (Rechtsschutzverband Deutscher Photog-
raphen) which fi nally turned into a Central Committee
of German Photographers (Centralverband Deutscher
Photographen) in 1902. The Austrian history is different
as the Photographic Society of Vienna (Photographische
Gesellschaft in Wien), installed in 1861, gradually grew
into the offi cial function of uniting all Austrian photog-
raphers and industries of the fi eld.
There were numbers of smaller societies and interest
groups among photographers, too. Besides local groups,
of which those in Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt on Main,
Weimar, and Chemnitz were the most active ones there
were groups of theater-playing photographers, of photo-
graphic industries, of suppliers of photographic materi-
als, and of photographic assistants. Although 10% of all
photographic employees in the late 19th century were
female there has been no group or society to pursue their
interests. As early as the 1850s there were smaller local
groups in amateur photography but there were societies
in amateur photography before the foundation of Society
for the Improvement of Amateur Photography (Verein
zur Förderung der Amateur-Photographie) in Berlin in- The German Society of Friends of Photography
(Deutsche Gesellschaft von Freunden der Photographie)
set up in 1887 had to prepare the big exhibition for the
celebration of photography’s 50th anniversary, and
a Free Photographic Society (Freie Photographische
Vereinigung) was the fi rst attempt in the creation of a
pressure group in Fine Art Photography.
Setting up institutions in photography seemed a lot
more complicated. In 1853, Hermann Krone in Dres-
den launched his fi rst school of photography offering
more than the average basic courses as given by nearly
every daguerreotypist before. This private institute was
converted in 1869 into a part of the Dresden polytech-
nicum, and Krone became the fi rst offi cial instructor
in photography on a technical basis. The fi rst class and
laboratory in photochemistry was installed at the Berlin
University in 1884, Hermann Wilhelm Vogel the fi rst
to hold the seat being followed by Adolf Miethe, Otto
Mente, and Erich Stenger. By 1888, Joseph Maria Eder
had founded the Higher Institute of Graphic Arts (Hoe-
here Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt) in Vienna
which was to be followed in 1900 by a similar institution
in Munich; the Lette school in Berlin specializing in
teaching women created a class in photography in the
same year. In 1885, the architect Albrecht Meydenbauer
had set up the Prussian Institute for Photogrammetry