1458
Italian fascists, and then the War, destroyed many of his
plates inspite of the attempts of his former model, go
between, and heir, Pancrazio Bucini, to protect them.
His infl uence was widespread: from his contemporaries
Vicenzo Galdi, Gaetano D’Agata, Plüschow, to 1950s
American Beefcake and David Jarmen’s movie Sebas-
tiane (1976). Post-Freud, post-1970s, and now regarded
as the founder of male nude photography, Gloeden’s
homoerotic depictions have become part of contempo-
rary gay culture.
Alistair Crawford
VON HERFORD, WILHELM (1814–1866)
Born in Soldin, Prussia (now Mysliborz, Poland),
under the full name Friedrich Wilhelm Theodor von
Herford, von Herford studied law in Berlin and Bre-
slau and worked as a civil servant until 1846, at which
time he began fi ve years of travel and language study
throughout Europe and the Middle East in preparation
for a diplomatic career. While waiting for a post, von
Herford traveled to Paris in 1853, where he sought out
fellow Prussian Édouard Baldus for photographic in-
struction. Student and master traveled through Provence
in September and October, working side-by-side as von
Herford made his fi rst successful pictures. Frustrated
by the dull winter light of Paris, he moved to Rome
before year’s end, and the following fall received further
instruction from an unidentifi ed German photographer,
likely Jakob August Lorent. From Rome, he traveled
to Sicily in late 1854, to Sardis, Trabzon, and fi nally
Beirut for the long-awaited consular position in 1855,
photographing along the way, notably at Baalbek. He
photographed extensively in Jerusalem in May and June
1856 and in Egypt in 1856 and 1857. In 1944 Erich
Stenger reported the survival of 185 paper negatives (60
of Rome and elsewhere in Italy; 27 of Jerusalem; 44 of
other sites in Palestine; 27 of Egypt; 5 of buildings in
other countries; and 22 of portraits and costume studies)
and 200 prints; what now remains is preserved at the
Agfa Foto-Historama, Köln.
Malcolm DanielVON HUMBOLT, ALEXANDER
(1769–1859)
Friedrich Heinrich Alexander, baron von Humboldt,
brother to philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Hum-
boldt, was born in Berlin in 1769 and died there in- One of the 19th century’s scientifi c giants, often
described as the last universal scholar, baron von Hum-
boldt is considered one of the founders of geography.
His extensive travels in South and Central America
(1799–1804), recorded in a long series of publications,
made him the century’s most infl uential explorer. His
fi nal, monumental treatise Kosmos (1845–1862) aimed
at a synthesis of knowledge on the natural and human
world, and emphasized methods of observation. Von
Humboldt’s involvement with the beginnings of pho-
tography was brief but signifi cant. Early in 1839, when
he was in Paris, his long-time friend François Arago,
the French scientist who sponsored Daguerre’s and
Niépce’s invention, called upon the Prussian scientist to
examine Daguerre’s plates and testify before the French
Academy. Von Humboldt was impressed. His letter of
February 25, 1839 to fellow-polymath Carl-Gustav Ca-
rus, describing Daguerre’s views of Paris, is one of the
most eloquent of such early statements. His testimony
in favor of Daguerre, and more generally his endorse-
ment of photography’s descriptive powers, infl uenced
the adoption of the invention by explorers, especially
in the United States.
François Brunet
VON KOBELL, FRANZ (1803–1882)
In January 1839, the fi rst news of Daguerre’s invention
spread over Europe and the Academies took notice.
Many professors attempted to recreate the experiementVON GLOEDEN, BARON WILHELM
von Gloeden, Baron Wilhelm. L’Offerta.
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles © The J. Paul Getty
Museum.