by Emily Rinaman, Technical Services Manager
While cell phone data plans aren’t cheap, the wide majority of individuals still have a personal phone. Today, one can snap a photo of himself or herself at any given moment of the day using his or her cell phone and social media is littered with people’s self-made photographs in all sorts of scenarios. But even just 100 years ago, getting an image of oneself made was an extravagant affair.
Only the rich could afford to hire an artist to paint portraits and those portraits were often the only image that was created of someone in his or her entire lifetime. They had to have the free time to sit still for hours as the artist painted them. The larger the painting, the more expensive it was, not just for the amount of materials needed, but for the length of time it took the artist to finish it.
A graduation portrait for Junior Home student, Dorothy, done by George Brihl Studios of Tiffin in the 1930s.
George Brihl owned Brihl Studios at 78 S. Washington, and he specialized in portraits with hand-carved frames. Other portrait options for Seneca County residences were Cooper Walter, John Stephens, Wesley Edmiston, and Jordan Norval, who also painted landscapes.
William Boehler advertised himself as a “free hand” portrait artist.
Miniatures (to be displayed in lockets) were cheaper versions of portraits. Likewise, cameos were carved portraits made into jewelry during the Victorian era. Shadow portraits (silhouetted profiles) became a trend for awhile, too, as a cheaper alternative to a detailed portrait.
C.A. Gribble, who was a photographer in Tiffin in the 1880s and 1890s, advertised that he did “all kinds of work executed from the common size photograph to a life-sized portrait in crayon, water color or India ink.
Even when cameras and photography replaced portraiture, a daguerreotype “selfie” cost close to the equivalent of three months of wages.
This extravagance did exist in Seneca County, although it was criticized. In the book Seneca County Sketches, which has been fully digitized on the Seneca County Digital Library, Myron Barnes states, “there were 2 daguerreotype studios to record pictures of brides and babies, and vain citizens who couldn’t afford to have their portrait painted.”
While Barnes may have thought getting one’s photo was vain, there was any number of photographers operating in Tiffin, including O.P. Frees on 68 South Washington, Irvin Dicken on 121 Perry, James Ball of the Biles Studio at 115 ½ S. Main St., Barclay Pennington on the top floor of the Grummel and Remmele Block Building (136-144 S. Washington), and Oscar Tuneson, “the leading photograph in Tiffin for many years,” at the corner of Madison and Washington.
Sketches of school board members for Tiffin Schools. Portraits were one of the many luxuries only those with ample amounts of money could afford, and done only sporadically, often even only once, in a person’s lifetime.
Any good photography studio would have required a sitting area with large windows to allow natural light. One way photographers circumvented shadows cast was the use of props and ways the subjects posed. Since getting one’s photograph taken was a major event, people made it and adventure and persuaded the photographer to pose in ways or use props that illustrated their personalities. People often referred a photograph of oneself as their “likeness.”
Family portraits and photographs were also extremely important events. Traveling photographers would schedule home visits to take photographs of people in front of their own homes (in the natural light). In a way this was like social media, because getting photographed with one’s treasures was one way to show off. “Whether you were a family with social climbing aspirations or a recently arrived immigrant wanting to send good news back home, a family portrait was a highly effective way to support your storyline of success”.
On the flip side, people also remembered the fickleness of life and family portraits were a sacred way to memorialize loved ones after death. “Families realized a family portrait would capture the family during the limited time they were all together. Preserving that memory seemed worth making financial sacrifices to achieve.”
A family portrait of a young boy and possibly his grandfather, taken by Mr. Pennington at his studio on Washington Street. Family portraits were a way to memorialize loved one’s short time together before death often snatched people prematurely.
Once photography was well established, it became standard practice to have class photographs made for primary and secondary schools. An advertisement in the 1922 Blue and Gold yearbook for Miller’s Studio reads, “Be Photographed. Photography is Portraiture. The gift that has personality that is you.”
Just fifteen years later, the Boles-Dandurand Studio (Portrait and Illustrative Photography) was the hired photographer in the area for school and college photographs.
A the old saying goes, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” With photography, it’s no different. Children in schools are getting their school portraits taken throughout September. Activity portraits use the equipment (helmets, balls, band instruments) and have the athletes pose in stances reflective of that activity. Teams take group photos. And parents will purchase packages with these portraits in varying sizes and prices to give to family members.
Works cited:
75th Anniversary Souvenir. Seneca County Digital Library. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/22962/rec/2
Yearbook Columbian Blue and Gold 1938. Seneca County Digital Library. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/2967
Yearbook Columbian Blue and Gold 1922. Seneca County Digital Library. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/993
Seneca County Digital Library, Tiffin City Directories.
https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/search/searchterm/Directories/field/subjec/mode/exact/conn/and
Toriano, Catherine. “The History of Portrait Photography.” National Trust. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/discover/history/art-collections/the-history-of-portrait-photography-through-national-trust-collections
Kukulski, Mike. “A Brief History of Photography, Part 11: Early Portrait Photography.” Oct. 16, 2014. Not Quite in Focus. https://notquiteinfocus.com/2014/10/16/a-brief-history-of-photography-part-11-early-portrait-photography/
Barnes, Myron. Seneca Sentinel Bicentennial Sketches. Seneca County Digital Library. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/33669