Photography in Bavaria – more valuable than a diamond – Bavaria

What a great picture, it draws the viewer in immediately. Four young farriers can be seen standing in front of their workshop and looking confidently into the camera. Of course, it’s not a snapshot, it’s more an exemplary staged portrait. The men’s tools – hammers, anvil and tongs with horseshoe – are graphically arranged in an effective way. “Of course, no real work situation is shown here,” says Roger Jopp, who is very familiar with the history of photography. “The four boys want to be seen as proud representatives of their profession,” says Jopp, in the spirit of the master photographer August Sander (1876-1964), who became famous a hundred years ago as a pioneer of documentary portrait photography. In his epoch-making volume “People of the 20th Century”, Sander drew a cross-section of society in the Weimar Republic, from craftsmen to artists.

The amateur photographer Anton Reichl probably took the photograph with the four farriers with the help of a self-timer, because he can be seen in it himself. However, the stylistics of the recording suggest that Sander’s influence even then extended to rural Lower Bavaria. “August Sander was known here,” Jopp is very sure. In the countryside, too, the photographers had their finger on the pulse, they knew exactly what had to be done technically and aesthetically. How popular the art of photography was in its early days is shown by a photograph taken on the town square of Vilsbiburg in 1858, which was made with great technical effort. It shows a girl with a basket. That was just 20 years after photography was born in Paris.

Four young Lower Bavarian blacksmiths in the early 1930s.

(Photo: Anton Reichl/Heimatmuseum Vilsbiburg)

Photography in Bavaria: Old peasant couple, taken around 1920.

Old peasant couple, photographed around 1920.

(Photo: Sebastian Alt/Heimatmuseum Vilsbiburg)

Photography in Bavaria: Ice skating on the frozen Vils, taken around 1913.

Ice skating on the frozen Vils, taken around 1913.

(Photo: Otto Marquard/Heimatmuseum Vilsbiburg)

Jopp is an active member of the Vilsbiburg local history association, which is currently showing a remarkable exhibition about the history of photography in Vilsbiburg and the surrounding area in its museum. The topic may be narrowly defined in terms of space, but its dimensions extend far beyond the borders of Lower Bavaria. Because it shows how this art flourished more than a hundred years ago, even outside of the big cities. Even in remote regions there were already professional photographers who had often outgrown the craft and the peasantry and were masters of their profession. Today, their pictures allow us to look deep into the society of that time, into its constraints, its needs and joys, as well as into living conditions that have become completely alien to us.

Photography in Bavaria: Sebastian Alt (1867-1954) began taking photographs professionally in 1908.  He left a good 13,500 photos from Vilsbiburg and the surrounding area.

Sebastian Alt (1867-1954) began taking photographs professionally in 1908. He left a good 13,500 photos from Vilsbiburg and the surrounding area.

(Photo: Sebastian Alt/Heimatmuseum Vilsbiburg)

Photography in Bavaria: Four "graces" from the 1930s is the title of this photograph.

Four “Graces” from the 1930s is the title of this photograph.

(Photo: Sebastian Alt/Heimatmuseum Vilsbiburg)

A showcase in the exhibition is dedicated to one of these professional photographers, whose name was Sebastian Alt. Alt was born into a small estate in 1867, later learned the carpentry trade and was a dazzling multi-talent that is rarely found. His oldest surviving photograph from 1908 shows villagers at the church fair. In addition to his carpentry, Alt ran a bee farm with 120 colonies. He also built a small power station on the Vils, which he used to generate electricity for his own use.

He photographed his customers in a studio attached to his property. He also did mobile jobs out in the desert farms, which he reached by bike with his heavy gear strapped to it. He didn’t impose himself, “the farmers wanted to be photographed,” says Jopp. The ability to capture the moment found social acceptance quite early on. Enterprising photographers began early to roam the villages with their huge cameras.

Alt kept meticulous records of his orders. However, the entries that still exist only begin with the number 4058. At the end of 1938, Alt numbered his photographic work at 13,530 photographs. What distinguished Alt was the rogue. “He was really funny,” says Jopp, which is reflected in his photos, which are sometimes staged in a Valentine’s style. And that at a time when people were always looking deadly seriously at the camera.

Photography in Bavaria: Artists in Vilsbiburg, a photo from 1910.

Artists in Vilsbiburg, a photo from 1910.

(Photo: Anton Wagner/Vilsbiburg Local History Museum)

Photography in Bavaria: sausage sellers on the town square in Vilsbiburg, around 1930.

Sausage sellers on the town square in Vilsbiburg, around 1930.

(Photo: Ida Bergmann/Vilsbiburg Local History Museum)

80,000 negatives and glass plates are stored in the archive of the Vilsbiburg Heimatverein. Many of them can no longer be determined straight away. A grandiose idea was therefore conceived a good 40 years ago in the editorial office of the Vilsbiburg Newspaper born. Since that time, the newspaper has published an old photo weekly, asking for information about who and what is pictured there. “The clear-up rate is over 90 percent,” says former museum director Lambert Grasmann. For example, during World War I, Sebastian Alt documented the guards at a prison camp near Vilsbiburg. In fact, some men were recognized after being printed in the newspaper. The oldest stocks were almost completely identified in this way.

The exhibition not only makes it clear that the photos have to be interpreted from the perspective of their time, but also how difficult it was to expose a glass plate. The photographs provide insights into vanished worlds since a short piece of time can be frozen on their surface. The philosopher Karl Valentin (1882-1948) defined the standard for the value of such treasures. An old picture of Munich, he said, “is worth more than it’s brilliant”.

Kindly please! On the history of photography in Vilsbiburg and the surrounding area. Heimatmuseum Vilsbiburg, until May 31, 2023, Sunday 10 a.m.-12 p.m., Wednesday 2-4 p.m. Additionally on the first weekend of the month: Saturday 2-4 p.m. and Sunday 2-4 p.m. Telephone 08741-3821 (only during opening hours).

source site