1423
Union photographique in 1859 as a mutual aid society
for the protection of workers engaged in all aspects of
professional photography.
Very little is known about the situation of the majority
of photographic workers in 19th century Europe. Most
photographers were artists or craftsmen, and their studios
employed just a few assistants in setting up chemicals,
carrying equipment, or retouching the results. Larger
studios began to employ women for greeting the clients
when entering the rooms. Social problems arose with the
establishment of larger companies and studios after the
introduction of the carte-de-visite and stereo cards.
Workers at lithographic establishments such as Hanf-
staengl in Munich or Roemmler & Jonas in Dresden
organized themselves in printers’ unions but because of
the nature of their operations, photographic workers had
little or no access to such organisations. Membership of
many of the early mutual aid societies was restricted to
studio principals—the photographers themselves—with
little or no protection available to their workers.
About 1865, twenty Danish professional photogra-
phers formed themselves into a professional associa-
tion—the fi rst such organisation in that country—but
like so many early attempts at the formation of trade
associations, it was relatively short lived.
In 1870, there was an “Association of Photographic
Operators” (Photographischer Gesellenverein) founded
in Berlin, and in 1885 there was a branch set up in
Dresden, in 1887 as well in Chemnitz and Munich. In
1891, authors of a meeting’s report hastened to tell the
public that they had ‘eliminated all socialist elements’
from their organisation, and in 1898 a Viennese associa-
tion of operators had similar problems in distinguishing
themselves from workers’ unions.
As many photographic assistants worked in large
printing offi ces they found themselves organized as
printers by the late 1860s in Italy, France, Switzerland,
and Austria, to be followed by Germany in the late
1870s. Lithographers became well organized after the
invention of the autotype process both in Germany and
Austria, and it is likely that numbers of practitioners
went under the shelter of their union by this time.
Britain was very slow to adopt the idea of a trade as-
sociation or union for photographers and photographic
workers. From the 1850s, organisations such as the
Photographic Society and the Architectural Photogra-
phers Association (later the Architectural Photographic
Society) were open to amateurs and professionals
alike—the criteria for membership focusing on the ‘gen-
tleman photographer’ rather than the staff who worked
behind the scenes. So the negotiations with Talbot over
the restrictions imposed by the calotype patents were
conducted through the Photographic Society rather than
by any professional grouping.
It was the 1880s before an exclusively professional
association was fi rst mooted in Britain, and 1890 before
a trade union for photographic assistants came into
being—the same year that the Photographic Manu-
facturers Association was formed. A busy year for the
formation of specialised groupings, 1890 also saw the
establishment of the Society of Professional Photog-
raphers (quickly renamed the National Association
of Professional Photographers) towards the year-end.
None of these groupings endured—the NAPP folding by
1898—and a Master Photographers Association enjoyed
only a very brief existence during the 1890s. It was 1901
before the Professional Photographers Association (now
the British Institute of Professional Photography) came
into being. That association continues today.
In the southern hemisphere, the distances which sepa-
rated areas of photographic activity dictated that local
rather than national associations were established.
The earliest professional photographic group in
Australia was the Photographic Society of Victoria,
formed in 1860, which held meetings at the studio of
Batchelder & O’Neil at 57 Collins St. Melbourne. The
secretary was Charles Hewitt. In 1894, the Professional
Photographers Association of Sydney formed, meeting
in the Sydney School of Arts with J. Hubert Newman
as Chairman, and a state-wide group, the New South
Wales Professional Photographers Association formed
in the same year, holding meetings at the Baker & Rouse
Warehouse in George St, Sydney.
The Photographic Association of South Australia
was formed late in December 1882 and the fi rst meeting
was held at George Freeman’s studio in King William
Street, Adelaide where it was reported that twenty-four
persons had sent in their names for enrolment, but the
group was short lived.
The South Australian Photographic Society fi rst met
14 August 1885 at Chairman Aaron Flegeltaub’s offi ce
in Freeman Street, Adelaide, catering for both profes-
sional and amateur photographers, while in Queensland
the Professional Photographers Association formed in
Brisbane in 1893 with Gustave A. Collins, operator at
the studio of Albert Lomer & Co, as president.
François Brunet, John Hannavy, Rolfe Sachsse,
Marcel SafierSee also: Daguerreotype; Anthony, Edward, and
Henry Tiebout; Scovill & Adams; Kodak; Cartes-de-
Visite; and Calotype and Talbotype.Further Reading
Jenkins, Reese V., Images and Enterprise, Technology and the
American Photographic Industry 1839 to 1925, Baltimore:
The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1975.
Rinhart, Floyd and Marion, The American Daguerreotype,
Athens,Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1981.
Welling, William, Photography in America: the Formative Years,