Fotovisit

Several hundred millions of Carte-de-Visites (visit cards) were produced worldwide, but most of them have been lost because they were regarded as worthless or later they could no longer be assigned to family or relatives. Although the value of a single Carte-de-Visite (CdV) is small, it gives an historical and photographic insight into the period between 1855 and 1925. With this home page I would like to bring visit card photography to a general public.

I began my collection mor than 25 years ago with a Carte-de-Visite album of my grandparents, ans so my interest in historical photography was aroused, especially the CdV. The collection has grown to over 30,000 over the past 30 years. My focus is mainly in CdVs from Switzerland and in the approximately 60 years during the CdV existed many hundred photo-graphers have established themselves, but also some have only been there for a short time. Ateliers were also taken over by the sons, sold and passed under another name. There were very few female photographers. Several then thousends of negative plates could be exposed by a photographer. Togehter with the photography technology the CdV has developed, and one can therefore determine the age of a CdV fairly accurately. Other informations, such as lothing accessories and cadboard, also help

You will not find any information on the history of photography or the Carte-de-Visite on this site. You can learn much more from the www or by using the links I have posted.
My collection includes many thousands of photographs, mainly in the format of the visit card, but also photographs in the Cabinet format, many hundred series brummagem postcards and albums for Carte-de-Visites and Cabinets. You can see a selection in the galleries. All pictures are shown in their original size and are not edited.