DISDÉRI (ANDRÉ ADOLPHE-EUGÈNE)
A mammoth plate portrait of a young woman, albumen print, image to view 760 x 560mm., [c.1865]
FOOTNOTES
A GOOD EXAMPLE OF A "MAMMOTH" PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT.
Disdéri, formerly a daguerreotypist, applied for a patent for carte-de-visite in 1854, and "its world-wide popularization was due to his initiative" (Gernsheim, The Rise of Photography 1850-1880, 1987). By 1856 he was employing a staff of seventy-two. As Gernsheim notes, Disdéri, always a "shrewd businessman", was an early exponent of the "mammoth portrait", buying the rights to Jacob Wothely's innovative solar enlarger in 1860.
Bonhams