The Studio Backdrop

Studio portraits are all well and good, but isn't that blank background boring? Wouldn't it be cool if you could look like you were in a fancy house or on the beach? This, pretty much, is what people were thinking right from the start of photography (there's daguerreotypes with painted backgrounds behind the sitters). These backdrops were especially popular in studio portraits of the nineteenth century. As handheld cameras and snapshots gained in popularity the backdrop began to fall out of fashion. After the first couple decades of the twentieth century you mostly only see painted backdrops in arcade photos and photobooth shots, but some studios kept using them until the mid-century. 

George Eastman House

A woman with a fancy interior backdrop, ca. 1895. Source

National Library of Ireland

Children and a toy wagon, Waterford, Ireland, 1906. Source

Library of Congress

Helen Saunders, 1914. Source

Library of Congress

Elias Elin, ca. 1910. Source

Australian War Memorial

Private Morris and friends, Melbourne, 1915. The caption notes that the sold print would be cropped to exclude the other background visible to the left. Source

Nantucket Historical Association

Florence Folger in a wedding gown, 1887, Springfield Massachusetts. Source

Bergen Public Library

The Bergen Music Fest, 1898, Bergen, Norway. Source

State Library of Queensland

A motorcyclist with his bike, ca. 1935, Queensland. Source

Personal collection

A young woman with a painted window, ca. 1870.

State Library and Archives Florida

Lucille Baldwin Brown, ca. 1940, first black county librarian in Tallahassee. Source

National Library of Ireland

Mr. Foley of Ferrybank, Waterford, Ireland, 1905. Source

Powerhouse Museum

A woman dressed as Boudica or Mother England, Australia, ca. 1900. Source

National Media Museum

A photographer and his staff, Germany, 1890. Source

Galt Museum

Two children with part of a backdrop, 1928. Source

Galt Museum

Mrs. L. Scott Child, Taber, Alberta, Canada, 1933. Source

Australian War Memorial

A cat asleep against the background in a soldier's portrait, Melbourne, 1915. Source

State Library of Queensland

An arcade-style photograph taken at the Trocadero, South Brisbane, ca. 1940.  Source

State Library of Queensland

A young woman in ballet costume, Nanango, Queensland, ca. 1900. Source

George Eastman House

Opera singer Minnie Hauk, ca. 1880. Source

Bergen Public Library

A portrait of Nina Hagerup, ca. 1864, Norway. Source

Powerhouse Museum

Portrait of Miss Johnson, in a kilt. Australia, ca. 1900. Source

Library of Congress

Baseball player King Kelly, ca. 1887. Source

State Library and Archives Florida

A woman in a striped dress with fan and fake fence, 1885-1910, Talahassee, Florida. Source

State Library of Queensland

Vel and Dorris Phillips, their goat sulky, and and pretty broadly painted backdrop. Brisbane, ca. 1914. Source

Private collection

Two men with "Niagara Falls", late 19th century/early 20th century. [this one was mine but I gave it to a wonderful friend!]