Posted 12 years ago
ho2cultcha
(5042 items)
so i found out who did take this photo and a little more about it. i took it out of the frame and found this name on the back. i think it is the name of the children's family. Ms. Schulze customarily put that info on the back of her photos of Chinese children. it was a very unusual thing for a young, white woman to go into Chinatown alone at the turn of the century - scandalous even. she had a very fashionable photo studio out on Geary Blvd and took lots of photos of Chinese children. Not a whole lot is known about her besides that - from what i can tell. interesting... the last photo is the impressed image on the photo which says 'Copyright 1900 Schulze'.
Love that frame! Interesting photo too!
i did some research on the photo and i think it's a rare, hand-colored photo by arnold genthe - a german who lived in sf around 1900. he took lots of photos of kids - some w/ the exact same clothes as these ones are wearing. cool!
The Bay Fringe. A great collecting theme!
Sigismund Blumann, Francis Bruguiere, Imogen Cunningham, John Paul Edwards, Arnold Genthe, Johan Hagemeyer, Adelaide Hanscom, Margrethe Mather, Oscar Maurer, Emily Pitchford, Karl Struss, Roger Sturtevant, Edward Weston and Willard E. Worden.
http://museumca.org/exhibit/exhi_friends_anne_brigman.html
since the photo is not signed, i'd like to get it authenticated. i'm sure that it is by genthe, but it is not a known photo and it is hand-colored - both unusual. can anyone suggest an expert in this area to authenticate it? thanks!
i found an incised signature on this photo in the lower left. it says 'copyright - 1906 [i think] and SCHULZE'. that may mean that a particular photographic process - like autochrome was used in the photo. i'm fairly confident that it's a photo by arnold genthe, but need more info on whether his photos are marked w/ 'schulze'. it could also mean that he was using a studio called schulze in san francisco at the time. his studio was destroyed in the 1906 quake, so he used the studios of other photographers that year. i think that this is a very rare and valuable photo - from what i've found so far. i found another photograph of this same girl and two boys by genthe taken that same year. i wish someone could answer all the questions i have about this!
I stumbled across this page by accident as I was looking for more info on the photographer of this picture. I wasn't able to find anything on her (or him?) yet, but I believe these photos are included in an 1899 wildly popular magazine called "The Cosmopolitan" (no relation to modern day's Cosmo) that was published in America in 1900.
Writer Mary Davison published an article called "The Babies of Chinatown" profiling immigrant Chinese children in San Francisco in 1900, and this photo and others like it (all from photographer Schulze) were included in the article to display dress, customs, etc. Like now, immigration was a big issue in America and many pieces were written praising and/or disparaging immigrants that came to the US. You can check out the entire magazine issue for free on Google play:
http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Cosmopolitan.html?id=TYnNAAAAMAAJ
Check it out... very interesting perspectives from the turn of the century. Hope that helps shed light on the photos' purpose and creation.
WOW! thank you so much skyla2186! your response shows the real potential of this website - helping people to find the socio-cultural relevance of objects which we find special or interesting, or merely intriguing. you HAVE shed a lot of light on this as well as pointed out the relevance it has today in america. i hope that i will also be able to contribute in this way in the future.
Great photograph and FRAME-- looks to be in fantastic shape!
scott
thank you rucklczglass and scottvez! it is a cool photo and frame and i had a great time researching it!