Adolph Braun
French, 1812-1877
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Born in southern Alsace in 1812, Adolph Braun was first a textile designer in Paris and then his hometown of Mulhouse before finally pursuing photography in the 1850s. Adolph Braun's artistic talent as a draftsman and his knowledge of chemistry gave him an advantage in this new endeavor. His first major work was a series of floral photographs, compiled into a book of three hundred plates and shown to the Academie des Sciences in Paris. Despite the fact that the images were intended to be models for textile design, the series was recognized as an artistic achievement and introduced Adolph Braun into the world of French photography. Following the current trends of landscape photography, Adolph Braun began making images of the views and monuments of his native Alsace. He also made stereoscopic cards of Germany and Switzerland, which brought him financial success.
Over the course of the next decade, Adolph Braun made thousands of stereoscopic cards admired by tourists and photographers alike. Throughout the 1860s and into the 1870s Adolph Braun covered a wide variety of subjects from local costumes to still-life compositions to the destruction and aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War. One of Adolph Braun's final ventures was into the realm of art reproduction. With his skill at producing superior prints and the use of a more permanent carbon printing process, Adolph Braun and his studio gained critical acclaim. Adolph Braun's life and career finally came to an end in 1877, but his photography studio outlived him by many years.
For more information, see Image and Enterprise: The Photographs of Adolphe Braun by Maureen O'Brien, Thames & Hudson Ltd, London, 2000.
Member of The Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD)
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