David Bachrach, Jr. (1845–1921) was an American commercial photographer based in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. He made contributions to the technical, artistic, and professional advancements in the field as well as being the founder of a photographic dynasty that became a unique institution in the United States. He became the spokesman for photographers at the turn of the 20th century who were confronted with a welter of technical and artistic choices. He regularly published in the leading photographic journals of the time and experimented with self-toning papers. He developed the first practical process for photographic printing on canvas, and a forerunner of the present-day photoengraving system. Bachrach, Inc., which was founded in 1910 and is still headed by the Bachrach family, had studios in all the major east coast cities. The Bachrachs, beginning with David, established the idea of "official portraiture," becoming the leading portrait photographers in the United States well into the 1960s. One of his earliest photographs is of the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Gettysburg (; non-locally ) is a borough and the county seat of Adams County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The Battle of Gettysburg (1863) and President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address are named for this town. Gettysburg is home to th ...

in 1863, when he was 18 years old. David Bachrach was born in the small town of Neukirchen, in Hesse-Kassel,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

(according to his obituary in Baltimore newspapers), although some other sources claim he was born further south in

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

, on July 16, 1845, to a Jewish family. He died on December 10, 1921, in

Roland Park Roland Park is a community located in Baltimore, Maryland. It was developed between 1890 and 1920 as an upper-class streetcar suburb. The early phases of the neighborhood were designed by Edward Bouton and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. History J ...

, and his ashes were interred in the family vault at Baltimore Hebrew Cemetery. He was an uncle of

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...

. His home in Baltimore was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1985.

References

External links

Louis Fabian Bachrach website
Commercial photographers American portrait photographers 1845 births 1921 deaths American people of German-Jewish descent German emigrants to the United States {{US-photographer-stub

See also

References

External links