149
that ran for six miles along the Wisconsin river. By nam-
ing and photographing over 90 local features and other
local history sites, he turned the Wisconsin Dells into a
desirable, ‘must-see’ tourist destination. The prosperity
he generated led him to market many stereographs for a
growing tourist market. In the early 1880s he produced
an entire stereo catalogue. Although fi nancially satis-
fi ed, he wanted to produce exhibition quality photo-
graphs. He did this by using a mammoth plate camera
and an eight-by-ten-inch view camera. Using his early
carpentry experience, Bennett designed robust camera
boxes, printing equipment and tripods that could cope
with being used outside in the harsh natural landscape.
He also designed a rotating print house, which enabled
him to utilise all available natural sunlight to print im-
ages throughout the day. Bennett also developed an
instantaneous shutter that aided photographing a moving
person. This type of shutter allowed him to be able to
freeze action and he produced one of his most famous
photographs, ‘Leaping the Chasm at Stand Rock’.
Jo Hallington
BENTLEY, WILSON ALWYN
(1865–1931)
A pioneer in photomicrography and meteorology,
Bentley spent his life on the family farm in Jericho,
Vermont. Bentley never married and obsessively
studied and recorded snowfl akes, rain, fog, and dew.
Bentley’s formative years were influenced by his
mother; a former school teacher, who was fascinated
by all knowledge and possessed an early microscope.
Bentley used the microscope to observe snowfl akes and
attempted to draw them until he convinced his parents
to buy a bellows camera and microscope objective. In
January 15, 1885, he became the fi rst person to pho-
tograph a single snow fl ake and discovered that each
snowfl ake is unique and individual. Working in relative
isolation and without peer recognition for most of his
life, Bentley was encouraged by a local professor to
share his fi ndings with the world outside of Vermont.
In 1898 his fi rst article was published in Appleton’s
Popular Scientifi c Monthly. He continued his research
and published numerous articles in relative obscurity,
until in 1924 he was awarded the fi rst ever grant from
the American Meterological Society for his lifetime’s
work. Bentley never copyrighted his work or did it for
monetary gain as he considered his photographs to be
‘illustrations of God’s work in all its beauty.’ His life’s
work was published in collaboration with Dr. William
J Humphreys in 1931, and entitled ‘Snow Crystals.’
His work was carried out outside, in order to keep the
snowfl ake frozen and intact, which may have resulted
in his death from pneumonia in 1931.
Jo Hallington
BERGGREN, GUILLAUME (WILHELM)
(1835–1920)
Swedish photographer
Berggren was born in Stockholm and in 1850 was ap-
prenticed to a carpenter. In 1855 he traveled to Berlin,
where he worked in a photographic studio. Later he trav-
eled to other European cities, and in 1866 set sail from
Odessa on the Black Sea to travel around the world.
When Berggren reached Istanbul and toured the city
he was so fascinated that he decided to settle there. He
worked for a shipping company until the early 1870s,
when he opened a photographic studio on Grand’ Rue
de Péra. His niece Hilda Ullin (1861–1953) arrived from
Sweden and began to work with him.
Berggren was a master of technique and composition,
and produced some of the fi nest scenes of Istanbul and
the Bosphorus, and photographs of local people. During
construction of the Baghdad railway he photographed
many of the cities on the route.
When the Swedish King Gustaf V (1858–1950)
visited Istanbul in 1885, he presented Berggren with
a decoration. Berggren was also awarded an Ottoman
decoration by Sultan Abdülhamid II (r. 1876–1909).
When he died his niece Hilda Ullin buried all his pho-
tographic equipment with him in the Swedish cemetery
in the Feriköy district of Istanbul.
Engin ÖzendesBERNOUD, ALPHONSE (1820–1889)
French photographerJean Baptiste Bernoud, known as Alphonse, was born at
Meximieux, Lyon on 4th February 1820. He started his
activity as a photographer by doing daguerreotypes on
the Ligurian Riviera. In 1850 he worked with Lossier
in Genoa at Palazzo Pallavicini, strada Scurreria. In the
1850s he moved to Florence, Santa Maria in Campo,
434, but he also opened branches at Siena, piazza S.
Petronilla, and Livorno, via Ferdinanda 71. He be-
came well-known for his photographic portraits, often
touched up in watercolours. In 1854 he showed some
daguerreotypes of animals at the Esposizione Industri-
ale Toscana in Florence. In 1856 he moved to Naples,
via del Boschetto della Villa Reale and then in Palazzo
Berio, via Toledo 256. He continued to work in Florence
until 1878, in via dei Balestrieri, 434, via dell’Oriolo,
51 and in via del Proconsolo. He took part in the Paris
Exhibitions of 1855, 1857, 1867. At the Italian Exhibi-
tion in 1861 he won a prize for his “cartes de visite”
and his stereoscopic views. He photographed important
events: the earthquake of December 1857 in Naples, the
fall of the Regno delle Due Sicilie in 1860–1861 and the
eruption of Vesuvius in 1872 (P. Becchetti collection,