My Helene, On her Lap Little Mathilda Asleep, and Close By, Our Two Other Children, Robert and Little Louise (Main View)

Hermann Carl Eduard Biewend—Master of the Mint for the Bank of Hamburg for thirty-three years (1843-1876)—became an early, influential amateur daguerreotypist in Germany. A trained chemist, Biewend published many scholarly articles on chemistry and may have collaborated with another scientist to test lenses and cameras. He began to photograph sometime between 1846 and 1849, and became one of the few German daguerreotypists to make landscapes and architectural views as well as portraits of his family and friends.

The warm expressions of the photographer's wife and children reveal their intimate relationship. All of the faces are slightly blurred. Helene and the children would have had to sit perfectly still for upwards of thirty seconds. The tenderness of this family scene contrasts with the severe-looking protrusion that appears above their heads, which Biewend has spared them. Such head clamps were commonly used devices for keeping sitters still during long exposures.

Adapted from getty.edu, Interpretive Content Department, 2009.