709
HOFMEISTER, THEODOR (1863–1943)
AND OSKAR (1871–1937)
German photographers
Theodor worked as a wholesale merchant and Oskar was
a secretary in the county court. The brothers Hofmeis-
ter began exhibiting photography in 1897 in Hamburg
and produced their photographs as a team effort; later
Oskar took the photographs and Theodor made the gum
prints, often the scenes to be photographed were fi rstly
sketched by Theodor. In 1895 they were producing pic-
ture postcards, from 1897–1899 fi gure studies of local
people in traditional costumes. Infl uenced originally by
Heinrich Kuehn, who taught Theodor gum printing, and
the Wiener Kamera Klub (Vienna), they were to become
known essentially for their gum bichromate landscape
images, usually featuring a low horizon, with intelligent
and original use of colour and composition that allowed
a dialogue on the relationship between man and nature,
as distinct from the often trite and sentimental land-
scapes of fellow Pictorialists. Their photographs were
collected by museums, including Hamburg and Dresden
and exhibited internationally. In 1909/10 they stopped
gum printing and thereafter produced straightforward
bromide prints. They were members of the Hamburg
Pictorialists, established by Ernst Juhl in 1883, and Die
Gesellshaft zur Forderung die Amateur Photographie.
Along with Rudolf and Minya Dührkoop, also from
Hamburg, they became members of the British ‘Linked
Ring Brotherhood’ in 1908. In 1902 they began teach-
ing and were known for being helpful to other aspiring
photographers.
Alistair Crawford
HOGG, JABEZ (1817–1899)
British opthalmic surgeon, microscopist,
photographer, journalist
Hogg was born in Chatham, the youngest son of John
Hogg of the Royal Dockyard. Like his schoolfellow
Charles Dickens, Hogg would become a prolifi c, wide-
ranging, and politically conscious author. An overview
of Hogg’s career points toward the fruitful interconnec-
tions in mid-nineteenth-century Britain between science
or natural philosophy on the one hand and literature
and popular journalism on the other. Hogg’s interest in
photography may be seen as one of several points of
connection between these spheres, as is suggested by
his abiding fascination with the metaphor—which struck
him as both mechanical and poetic—of the camera as
a human eye.
In 1840 Hogg entered the medical profession, in-
dentured to Hugh Welch Diamond. He clearly assisted
Dr Diamond in his pioneering experiments in using
photography for scientifi c documentation, for by 1843
he had learned enough from the distinguished physi-
cian to publish The Practical Manual of Photography.
That same year Hogg joined the staff of the Illustrated
London News, which immediately gave him a forum
for disseminating information about the new art-sci-
ence. (The fi rst specialist journals were of course still a
decade away.) The iconic quarter-plate daguerreotype
of Hogg making a portrait, often described as the fi rst
known image of a photographer at work, was prob-
ably made in 1843 to illustrate The Practical Manual.
A wood-engraved reproduction appeared in the book,
and also in the Illustrated London News (19 August
1843), where it accompanied “Lines Written on Seeing
a Daguerreotype Portrait of a Lady” by Miss Elizabeth
Sheridan Carey.
This single image tells us much about early da-
guerreotype practice in London. According to a footnote
accompanying the Illustrated London News reproduc-
tion, the setting is “Mr. Beard’s establishment, Parlia-
ment-Street, Westminster.” One of Richard Beard’s three
daguerreotype portrait studios, the Parliament Street
establishment had opened on 29 March 1842, about a
year after the coal merchant purchased a patent from
Jacques-Louis-Mandé Daguerre’s agent Miles Berry to
practice the technique and to sell licences to others in
England, Wales, and the colonies. Hogg—given his ex-
tensive prior experience in photography and his diverse
commitments as a physician, writer, and editor—was
presumably one of Beard’s associates and licensees
rather than an operator under his employ. Hogg built
a studio of his own onto his home in Barnsbury Park,
Islington, around this time.
In the daguerreotype of Hogg at work, the camera,
positioned on a stand with a rotating plate, helps to date
the image to spring or summer 1843. Until that time,
Beard’s studios had used Alexander Simon Wolcott’s
concave-mirror cameras with ordinary lenses, ideal for
daguerreotype portraiture because they refl ected day-
light onto sitters through a copper sulfate trough that
turned the light blue. Beard had obtained the right to
use this invention from John Johnson, Wolcott’s partner
in New York’s “Daguerrean Parlor,” who came to Lon-
don in November 1840 to assist in establishing Beard’s
Royal Polytechnic studio. Johnson’s father, William S.
Johnson, had preceded him by some months to initiate
the business arrangements, and it is he who is the sitter
in Hogg’s daguerreotype. However, the camera seen
here is not one of Wolcott’s design: rather, it features
the Petzval-type portrait lens that superceded the mirror
camera in terms of speed and focal length. Hogg has
removed the lens cap and is timing the exposure on his
pocket watch (depending on the lighting conditions, it
would have been fi ve to eight seconds). Johnson poses