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August Sachtler (ca. 1839 - April 1873) war ein deutscher Photograph mit Sitz in Singapur, der vor allem durch seine Aufnahmen aus „Hinterindien“ und Ostasien bekanntgeworden ist.

Lebensweg

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Über den Geburtsort, das Elternhaus, die Kindheit, Jugend und Ausbildung von August Sachtler ist nichts bekannt. Der ebenfalls in Singapur tätige Photograph E. Hermann Sachtler war möglicherweise sein Bruder.

August Sachtler arbeitete zunächst als Techniker bei der Telegraphen Bau-Anstalt von Siemens & Halske, Berlin. Er nahm als Marinesoldat („Handwerker IV. Klasse“)[1] an der preußischen Ostasien-Expedition unter Leitung von Friedrich Albrecht Graf zu Eulenburg teil, die von der Preußischen Marine von 1859 bis 1862 durchgeführt wurde und unter anderem dem Abschluss von Freundschafts-, Handels- und Schiffahrtsverträgen mit Japan (am 24. Januar 1861), mit China (am 2. September 1861) und mit Siam (am 7. Februar 1862) dienten. Sachtler sollte in den Zielländern der preußischen Expedition ein Gastgeschenk vorführen, den Telegrafen der Firma Siemens & Halske.

An der Eulenburg-Expedition nahm auch ein Fotograf teil: Carl Heinrich Bismarck, ein unehelicher Sohn Eulenburgs. Carl Heinrich Bismarck hatte keinerlei Ausbildung in Fotografie und erlernte dieses Handwerk erst unterwegs; der technisch versiertere und wohl auch visuell begabtere Sachtler wurde beauftragt, Bismarck zur unterstützen und zu betreuen. Die Photographen führten drei Kameras, darunter einen stereoskopische, mehrere Bildprojektionsgeräte, umfangreiche Fotochemie und 2500 Fotoplatten mit sich, außerdem die erforderliche Dunkelkammerausrüstung. Die künstlerische Leitung hatte der Maler Wilhelm Heine (1827–1885), der aber selbst über wenige photographische Kenntnisse und Fertigkeiten verfügte.

Zudem beauftragte die preußische Expedition in Japan den dort ansässigen US-amerikanischen Fotografen John Wilson (1816–1868) für knapp drei Monate mit Fotoarbeiten.

Vor der Verbreitung der Photographie wurden im Auslandsdienst der Marine Zeichner eingesetzt, um z. B. fremde Hafeneinfahrten und Befestigungsanlagen zu skizzieren und um die Bauart und Bewaffnung ausländischer Kriegsschiffe zu dokumentieren. Erst ab den 1870er Jahren wurden die Marine-Zeichner nach und nach durch Marine-Fotografen ersetzt. Bei der preußischen Ostasien-Expedition von 1859 bis 1862 dürfte es sich um die erste deutsche Marine-Mission gehandelt haben, zu der ein offizieller Photograph gehörte. In den 1860er Jahren war die Photographie noch eine relativ neue Technik. Anfangs waren die Fotoausrüstungen noch so sperrig, die Erstellung von belichtbarem Photomaterial, das Entwickeln und Abziehen der Bilder noch so aufwändig und fehlerträchtig und die fachgerechte Nutzung der sperrigen Fotogeräte unter den beengten Verhältnissen auf einem Schiff noch so umständlich, dass Photographien von Marine-Fahrten bis in die 1880er Jahre hinein hohen Seltenheitswert hatten.

Offenbar hat August Sachtler – teils im praktischen Selbstunterricht und teils sicher auch von dem Berufsphotographen John Wilson – das Photografenhandwerk so gut erlernt, dass er sich zutraute, es zu seiner Erwerbstätigkeit zu machen. Im Jahr 1864, etwa zwei Jahre nach dem Ende der preußischen Ostasien-Expedition, gründete er in Singapur gemeinsam mit dem dänischen Photographen Kristen Feilberg (1839–1919) das Photostudio Sachtler & Co, in der High Street nahe dem Gerichtsgebäude.

Schon bald darauf eröffnete Feilberg mit einem gewissen E. Hermann Sachtler – vermutlich einem Bruder – eine Zweigniederlassung im malayischen Penang. Im Jahr 1867 präsentierte Feilberg 15 photographische Ansichten von Pennang und Ceylon (Sri Lanka) auf der Weltausstellung in Paris. Im Jahr 1869 kehrte Hermann Sachtler von Penang nach Singapur zurück, offenbar, nachdem er einen lebensgefährlichen Sturz überlebt hatte: Er fiel aus 20 bis 25 Metern Höhe vom Dach der katholischen Kathedrale, auf der er seine Kamera aufgebaut hatte, um Aufnahmen zu machen, und brach sich den Schädel und einen Arm, überlebte diesen Sturz aber erstaunlicherweise.

Im Jahr 1871 zog das Studio Sachtler & Co. innerhalb Singapurs von der High Street in die Battery Road um.

Im April 1873 starb August Sachtler.

Im Jahr 1874 eröffnete ein Photostudio unter dem neuen Namen „Sachtler’s Photographic Rooms“ wiederum in der High Street 88, gegenüber dem Hôtel d’Europe. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt bot die Firma Sachtler ein große Auswahl von Photographien an: aus Borneo, Java, Sumatra, Saigon in Vietnam, Siam (Thailand), Burma (Myanmar) und den Straits Settlements, also den britischen Kronkolonien an der Straße von Malakka, insbesondere Penang, Dinding, Malakka und Singapur.

Schon bald darauf, im Juni 1874, stellten „Sachtler’s Photographic Rooms“ ihren Geschäftsbetrieb wieder ein. Die Ausstattung dieser Firma und ihren Bestand an Photonegativen übernahm das Photoatelier Carter & Co.

Die Geschäftsaufgabe des Ateliers Sachtler hinterließ eine Lücke, die bald das Photostudie G.R. Lambert & Co. füllte, das Gustav Richard Lambert aus Dresden am 10. April 1867 in der High Street 1 eröffnete.[2]

Zur Bedeutung Sachtlers

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August Sachtler hat wesentlich zu den etwa 1.400 Photographien, darunter etlichen Stereoskopien, von der preußischen Ostasien-Expedition beigetragen, auch wenn viele davon nicht unter seinem Namen, sondern dem Carl Heinrich Bismarcks veröffentlicht wurden.

Das Sortiment der Firma Sachtler umfasste ein große Auswahl von Photographien aus Borneo, Java, Sumatra, Saigon, Siam (Thailand), Burma (Myanmar) und den Straits Settlements, also den britischen Kronkolonien an der Straße von Malakka.[3]. Ein großer Teil dieser Aufnahmen dürfte von August Sachtler selbst angefertigt worden sein.

Schon unter seinen Zeitgenossen fanden Sachtlers Photos Anerkennung. Sein bei der Pariser Weltausstellung von 1867 vorgestelltes Photoalbum wurde in Deutschland wegen des „Totaleindrucks“ gelobt, den die Aufnahmen des Atliers Sachtler aus „Hinterindien“ vermitteln. Etliche seiner Photos sind in der illustrierten Presse Großbritanniens abgedruckt worden.[4]

August Sachtler war unter den ersten europäischen Photographen und damit unter den ersten Photographen überhaupt, die Aufnahmen in Vietnam machten.[5]

Da er zu den Pionieren der Photographie in Asien zählt, haben seine Aufnahmen ethnographische und historische Bedeutung erlangt.

Rohstoffe und Quellen

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The earliest surviving photographic views of Singapore as a British settlement are Jules Itier’s 1844 daguerreotype of Boat Quay and Singapore River from Government Hill.[20] By the 19th century, prominent studios were established by arrivals from abroad such as August Sachtler, G.R. Lambert, and John Thomson, alongside Japanese and Chinese photography studios.[1] The presence of photography studios further shaped image-making processes and how Singapore was represented.[1] A. Sachtler & Co.'s views of Singapore were taken 20 years after Itier's daguerrotype, illustrating the large advances in photography.[20]

In the late 19th century and early 20th century, commercial photography studios would produce photographs of locals to represent different ethnicities, establishing visual tropes associated with these identities.[1] Also popular were photographs depicting different professions such as hawkers or barbers.[1] While some photos were commissioned, some were also mass produced according to market demands.[1]

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The first photographs of Vietnam were taken by Jules Itier in Danang, in 1845.[248] The first photos of the Vietnamese were taken by Fedor Jagor in November 1857 in Singapore.[249] Due to the forbidden contact to foreigners, photography returned to Vietnam again during the French conquest and had shots taken by Paul Berranger during the French invasion of Da Nang (September 1858).[250] Since the French seizure of Saigon in 1859, the city and southern Vietnam had been opening to foreigners, and photography entered Vietnam exclusively from France and Europe.[251]

Early photographers active in Vietnam were:

  • Octave de Bermond de Vaulx[252] (1831–95)
  • Jules-Félix Apollinaire Le Bas[253] (1834–75)
  • August Sachtler[254] (?–1874)
  • John Thomson[255]
  • Wilhelm Burger[256] (1844–1920)
  • Émile Gsell[257] (1837–1869)

[254], Bennett, Terry (2020). Early Photography in Vietnam. ISBN 978-19129-6-104-7., S. 32

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Kristen Feilberg

After giving up his dream of becoming a painter, he followed his sister to Singapore in 1862 where he worked partly as a tobacco agent and partly as a photographer.[4] In 1864, Feilberg together with August Sachtler took over the photographic studio in Singapore known as Sachtler & Co. Soon afterwards, together with E. Hermann Sachtler, he established a branch office in Penang. In 1867, Feilberg set up his own studio in Penang and, the same year, exhibited 15 views of Penang and Ceylon at the Paris World Exposition.[5]

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Unter den Teilnehmern befand sich neben Eulenburg, dem die Leitung übertragen worden war, der Attaché Max von Brandt (1835–1920), der Geograph Ferdinand von Richthofen (1833–1905), der Maler Wilhelm Heine (1827–1885), der Marineoffizier Reinhold von Werner (1825–1909), der Seekadett Karl von Eisendecher (1841–1934), als Schiffsarzt Robert Lucius von Ballhausen (1835–1914), die beiden Fotografen John Wilson und August Sachtler. Der Letztgenannte hatte die Aufgabe, Bismarck, der als Fotografengehilfe an der Mission teilnahm, in persönliche Betreuung zu nehmen. Um die Begegnungen und neuen Eindrücke der in Preußen noch weitgehend unbekannten Länder zu dokumentieren, hatten sie drei Kameras, mehrere Bildprojektionsgeräte, umfangreiche Fotochemie und 2500 Fotoplatten im Gepäck. Auch die notwendige Dunkelkammerausrüstung wurde mitgeführt. An Bord erlernte Bismarck das noch sehr aufwendige Fotohandwerk. Dazu gehörte die Technik der Bildkomposition, die bei Personenaufnahmen eine lange Zeit des Verharrens notwendig machte. Nach erfolgter Aufnahme begann die aufwendige Arbeit im Fotolabor, die jeweils richtige Mischungen der chemischen Substanzen, Kontrolle der Temperaturen in den Schalen mit den Lösungsmitteln und Einhalten der erforderlichen Belichtungszeiten notwendig machte. Diese Techniken beherrschte Bismarck nach einiger Übungszeit und beschriftete dann nach dem Trocknungsprozess die von ihm angefertigten Fotos mit einer kurzen Beschreibung von Ort sowie Motiv und autorisierte mit seinem Namen.[2] Bereits das erste angesteuerte Ziel Japan brachte eine reiche Ausbeute an Bildern, trotz der noch sehr schwierig handhabbaren Fototechnik. So hielt Bismarck zahlreiche Szenen mit arbeitenden japanischen Menschen, typische Bauwerke und auch die Präsentation eines Samurai mit der Kamera fest und signierte sie auch nach dem sehr aufwendigen Entwicklungsprocedere.[3]

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Vornehmlich sollte die Eulenburg-Mission zwar Vor-Ort-PR für den in Japan noch unbekannten Zollverein und dessen 29 Mitgliedstaaten machen, doch zum Tross des Grafen gehörten auch Naturforscher, Künstler - und Fotografen. Denn ein weiteres Ziel der Reise war es, das Mysterium Ostasien wissenschaftlich zu dokumentieren. Zum Glück blieb die für die damalige Zeit hochmoderne Fotoausrüstung vom Sturm unversehrt, sie befand sich auf den verbliebenen drei Schiffen.

Das Equipment bestand aus sechs Kameras, darunter zwei großformatigen, drei mittleren und einem Vorläufer der dreidimensionalen Bildbetrachtung, Fotochemikalien, Zelten, die als Dunkelkammer dienten - und 2500 Glasplatten.

der offizielle Fotograf der Expedition, der 20-jährige Carl Bismarck, der, so Dobson, "wenig Erfahrung im Fotografieren hatte und als langsam galt". Warum wurde er dann engagiert? "Er war der uneheliche Sohn von Graf Eulenburg mit einem 15-jährigen Mitglied der Bismarck-Familie", erklärt der Fotohistoriker [Sebastian Dobson] süffisant.

Als "Handlanger" für den unerfahrenen Bismarck-Spross war August Sachtler eingestellt worden, der eigentlich ein Gastgeschenk, den Telegrafen der Firma Siemens & Halske, vorführen sollte. Sachtler leitete später eines der erfolgreichsten Fotostudios in Singapur. Einen weiteren Fotografen, den US-Amerikaner John Wilson, stellte die Delegation für knapp drei Monate vor Ort an. Dobson vermutet, dass die beiden den Großteil der Aufnahmen in Japan machten.

  • Quelle: Sonja Blaschke, „Japan-Fotoschatz: Samurai in Sepia“. Diese Fotos bieten einen sensationellen Blick auf das historische Japan: Historiker haben Aufnahmen einer preußischen Delegation aufgespürt, die um 1860 auf Fernost-Mission war. Zu sehen sind hohe Würdenträger, aber auch das ganz normale Alltagsleben., in: Der Spiegel, 24. Januar 2011, https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/japan-fotoschatz-a-946993.html

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»Later he also worked together with W.B. Woodbury (Sachtler & Woodbury).«

  • Quelle: wereldculturen.nl

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11840/pi5995 https://collectie.wereldculturen.nl/?query=search=Deeplink%20identifier=[const_5995]&showtype=record#/query/903c6ffb-0709-4e2a-8756-1bc5241a1f79

  • Walter B. Woodbury (26. Juni 1834 – 5. September 1885), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_B._Woodbury »inventor and pioneering English photographer. He was an early photographer in Australia and the Dutch East Indies (now part of Indonesia). He also patented numerous inventions relating to various aspects of photography, his best-known innovation being the woodburytype photomechanical process. [...] In his career Woodbury produced topographic, ethnographic and especially portrait photographs. He photographed in Australia, Java, Sumatra, Borneo and London.«

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Soon, many adventurers, attracted by the chance of fortune, would try to establish photographic studios in Asia. Singapore — first trading post in 1819, then crown colony in 1867 — had its first documented photographer in 1843. The economic growth of the colony attracted many studios such as August Sachtler, 1863, and G.R. Lambert & Co, 1867. The enthusiasm of the foreign community both drew new photographers to Singapore and urged them to get organized. The first official society was the Strait Photographic Association, created in 1887 at Hill Street. The first president was D.C. Neave, founder o the F&N Company. As soon as 1894, members of this association took part in international photographic competitions and won prizes in Jakarta.

aus dem Eintrag: „Societies, Groups, Institutions, and Exhibitions in Asia (Excluding India)“, page 1283

... Stereographs led the way and in 1860 Negretti and Zambra in London pioneered publication of Southeast Asian stereographs. They took the bold step of dispatching Swiss photographer Pierre Rossier to China in 1859 and instructed him to go to Manila where he made images of the Taal volcano. The ease of making multiple prints facilitated the production of albums and panoramas extolling the progress of colonial cities. The earliest panorama in the Straits region was a view of Singapore in ten parts made in 1863 by Sachtler and Co. The firm also made one of the first published albums; Views and Types of Singapore. From 1864 the firm was run by August Sachtler and Danish-born Kristen Feilberg (1839–1919) and they built an extensive stock of views from across the region including images from an expedition to Sarawak in 1864. Feilberg, operating alone from 1867, had a feel for picturesque views which he exhibited in the Paris International Exhibition in 1867.

aus dem Eintrag: „South-East Asia: Malaya, Singapore, And Philippines“, S. 1314

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At some point during the year 1863, a former telegrapher recently discharged from the Prussian Navy embarked upon an ambitious photographic career in the British colony of Singapore. Over the next ten years, August Sachtler (c.1839-73) established himself as the foremost commercial photographer in Singapore, eclipsing his better-known competitor John Thomson, and producing an impressive portfolio of landscapes and portraits ranging from intimate carte-de-visite size prints to imposing panoramas formed of multiple large format prints. Equally adept in the field as in the comfort of the studio, Sachtler undertook a series of photographic expeditions, each more ambitious than the last, from his base in Singapore, crisscrossing the mainland and maritime regions of Southeast Asia. An album of Sachtler’s work submitted for display in the 1867 International Exposition in Paris was praised by his compatriots for the ‘holistic impression’ (Totaleindruck) it offered of the remote lands of ‘Further India’ (Hinterindien). By the time of his premature death in April 1873, Sachtler had created a successful brand that was synonymous with the photographic documentation of the Malay Archipelago and Indochina and had lived just long enough to see his work achieve mass circulation in the British illustrated press.

Although Singapore was Sachtler’s chosen field of operation, his photographic career had begun almost accidentally in Japan and China while he was serving in the naval squadron that accompanied the Prussian Expedition to East Asia during 1860-62. A succession of important commissions from the head of the expedition, Count Eulenburg, and its artist, Wilhelm Heine, gave Sachtler sufficient experience and confidence in his ability to claim privately for himself, despite his lowly rank in the Prussian Navy, the title of ‘artistic photographer’ under which he later established his public persona as a successful studio operator in Singapore.

This lecture will consider the place of August Sachtler in the early history of photography in Southeast Asia and the fortuitous role Japan played in his decision to make a career of ‘Further India’.

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Sachtler gained experience as a photographer in the Prussian expedition to Japan and China (1860-62), came to Singapore in 1863 and worked there as a commercial photographer until his death in April 1873.

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The J. Paul Getty Museum, »August Sachtler«, https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/40664/august-sachtler-about-1839-1873/

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This is part of a series of small carte de visite format portrait photographs by August Sachtler, a German photographer who started photographing in Singapore in the early 1860s. The studio details inscribed on the back of these cartes de visite read "A. Sachtler in Singapore", most probably predating Sachtler's partnership with Danish photographer Kristen Feilberg in Sachtler & Co in 1864.

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Photographien von Sachtler

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Terry Bennett, „Early Photography in Vietnam“, 22. August 2020, https://theclassicphotomag.com/early-photography-in-vietnam/

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The exact date of the founding of Sachtler & Co. remains unclear but the firm was in operation from the early 1860s until 1874.

  • Quelle: Jason Toh, „Singapore Through 19th Century Photographs“ (Singapore: Editions Didier Millet, 2009) 176 p. ISBN 978-981-4260-06-02

Reviewed by Gretchen Liu Volume 1, Issue 2, Spring 2011 Permalink: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.7977573.0001.210

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S. 28: Bismarck’s assistant, Sachtler, was given more opportunity to develop his evident talent for photography. August Sachter was a telegrapher by profession, having been assigned to the Prussian navy by the Berlin office of Siemens and Halske in order to demonstrate the operation of the telegraphic equipment which comprised one of the official gifts from the King of Prussia to each of the rulers of Japan, China and Siam. Indeed, Sachtler showed himself after a short time to be a proficient photographer who was capable of taking photographs on his own, and by the time the Prussians were almost ready to leave Edo, he was entrusted with the important task of taking commemorative portraits of the gaikoku bugyô and his staff.14 Sachtler’s fortuitous assignment to the Prussian East Asian Expedition was to make its mark not only upon his future career but also upon the early history of photography in East Asia. As early as the summer of 1861 it was evident that Sachtler intended to pursue a photographic career once he had obtained his discharge from the Prussian Navy, and he was already describing himself as a ‘photographic artist’.15 In 1862, after completing his duties with the expedition, Sachtler returned to the East Asia and established a photographic studio in Singapore, which

S. 29: continued to operate until 1874.16 Thus, by the time the Prussian mission left Edo for Nagasaki, its photographic staff now consisted of two photographers of more or less equal standing, although Sachtler was still officially classified by his naval rank of Artificer 4th Class (Handwerker IV. Klasse) and was obliged to continue wearing his uniform. In the demarcation of responsibility, it was apparent that while Bismarck was occupied almost entirely with photographing landscapes, Sachtler was an all-round photographer with a particular talent for portrait work.

S. 33: In any case, by this time the artistic staff was down to half-strength. Heine and Sachtler had left the mission in July to return to Europe, leaving Berg and Bismarck in charge of the iconography of the mission.29 This may have offered Berg an opportunity to expand his portfolio, but there is no evidence to suggest that Bismarck deployed his camera again in Japan.

S. 34: It is tempting to imagine Matsumoto sending word to his students in the third week of February that foreign photographers were at large in Nagasaki, but until concrete evidence emerges, an encounter between Ueno Hikoma and Horie Kuwajiro on one hand and Wilhelm Heine, Carl Bismarck and August Sachtler on the other can only be imagined.

S. 35, Fn. 29: Heine and Sachtler took different routes to Europe after separating in Yokohama in September 1861, the latter by the westward sea passage and the former across the Pacific and the United States. While Sachtler eventually arrived in Berlin in March 1862, Heine was not to return until January 1863,

"D:\Dokumente\EigneWerke\wikipedia_eintraege\The_Prussian_Expedition_to_Japan_and_its.pdf"

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Souvenir of Penang Or. 27.402 Author/creator Feilberg, K. (1839-1910) Sachtler, A. (1864-1925) Album containing 162 photos by among others August Sachtler and Kristen Feilberg. Topics found in the album: Penang town views and surroundings (European houses, Hotel Retreat, fort, Beach Street, port, waterfall, and plantations), Malacca and Singapore town views (Tanjong Pagar, Hotel d'Europe, landscapes and Batak villagse in Sumatra. The album contains so-called type photos as well, such as Aceh indigenous administrators, Batak people, and merchants.

Leiden University https://socrates.leidenuniv.nl/view/item/2325495#page/16/mode/1up

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In 1864, Feilberg together with August Sachtler took over the photographic studio in Singapore known as Sachtler & Company. Soon afterwards, together with East. Hermann Sachtler, he established a branch office in Penang. In 1867, Feilberg set up his own studio in Penang and, the same year, exhibited 15 views of Penang and Ceylon at the Paris World Exposition.

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Others came on government missions from Europe, charged with making photographic records to enhance official reports. August Sachtler, for example, landed in 1861 as part of an expedition from Prussia. Although hired as a telegrapher, he was forced, when the official photographer proved incompetent, to learn photography on the job, and his pictures rank among the earliest taken in Japan.

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Johan August Gottlob Sachtler (c.1839-1873) August Sachtler’s photographic career had begun almost accidentally in Japan and China while he was serving in the naval squadron that accompanied the Prussian Expedition to East Asia during 1860-62. After being discharged from the Prussian Navy in 1863 Sachtler embarked upon an ambitious photographic career in the British colony of Singapore. Over the next ten years, August Sachtler established himself as one of the foremost commercial photographers in Singapore. Equally adept in the field as in the comfort of the studio, Sachtler undertook a series of photographic expeditions, each more ambitious than the last, from his base in Singapore, crisscrossing the mainland and maritime regions of Southeast Asia. By the time of his premature death in April 1873, Sachtler had created a successful brand that was synonymous with the photographic documentation of the Malay Archipelago and Indochina and had lived just long enough to see his work achieve mass circulation in the British illustrated press.

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The same 1860s patterns can be seen in the Straits Settlements, where the Austrian August Sachtler, who had a substantial career in an Austrian government expedition to Japan in the early 1860s, arrived with his brother Carl Herman and opened a studio in Singapore in 1862. He also worked with the Dane Kristen Feilberg (1839-1919), who ran their Penang branch. The Sachtlers were the first studio in Singapore, and made the earliest panoramas of the city in 1863, where both died in 1874 after a decade of successful operation (fig.18).

Like Woodbury and Page and Bourne and Shepherd, the Sachtlers used a base in one port to make photographic expeditions to nearby regions to build inventories. August Sachtler and Feilberg made the first album of views of Singapore, and images of the cultural mix of peoples, referred to as "types", along with the first albums of Sarawak. Feilberg produced impressive, mammoth plates of the wild, unknown regions and of the Batak peoples in Sumatra.

Port Cities* Getting into the picture: Photographers and their customers in the port cities Goa to Manila, 1840-1900 Gael Newton https://www.photo-web.com.au/gael/docs/PortCities.htm

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Asia Bookroom, Photography in Asia: 1860-1900 A selection from two private collectionshttps://www.asiabookroom.com/images/upload/2021-photography-twocollections-web.pdf

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A contemporary of the Thomson Brothers was Sachtler & Co., which was most likely established in 1863 and came to dominate commercial photography in Singapore for a decade. 24 The identity of Sachtler & Co.’s original proprietor remains a mystery. By July 1864, however, the business had been taken over by a German, August Sachtler, in partnership with Kristen Feilberg. Sachtler was a telegrapher by profession, but his exposure to photography during an assignment to Japan in 1860 led to a change in career.25 Located on High Street near the Court House, Sachtler & Co. offered photography services with the images mounted on a wide variety of the latest frames and albums imported from England, as well as a ready selection of Singapore-made photographs. In 1865, a branch studio, Sachtler & Feilberg (a partnership between Hermann Sachtler, presumably August’s brother, and Feilberg), opened in Penang. Feilberg went on to start his own practice in 1867, and Hermann Sachtler returned to Singapore by 1869.

That year, it was reported that Hermann had met with a bad accident while taking photographs from the roof of the French Roman Catholic Church (presentday Cathedral of the Good Shepherd). While adjusting his camera, Hermann lost his footing and fell from a height of some 20 to 25 metres, fracturing his skull and arm, yet miraculously surviving the ordeal.

In 1871, Sachtler & Co. relocated to Battery Road before returning to High Street in 1874, reopening as Sachtler’s Photographic Rooms at No. 88, opposite the Hotel d’Europe. By then, the firm was supplying an extensive range of photographs taken around the region, including “views and types of Borneo, Java, Sumatra, Saigon, Siam, Burmah, and Straits Settlements”. 26 Sachtler & Co. ceased business shortly after; in June 1874, its stock of negatives and equipment was acquired by another photographic studio, Carter & Co.

Held in the National Library of Singapore is an album by Sachtler & Co. titled Views and Types of Singapore, 1863, containing 40 albumen prints that make up the oldest photographic material in the library’s collection. As the title indicates, the album features picturesque scenes (“views”) of the settlement and portraits of its diverse inhabitants (ethnographic “types”).

[...]

The closure of Sachtler & Co. left a gap that another photographic studio, G.R. Lambert & Co., rose to fill and in fact surpass. G.R. Lambert & Co. was established at 1 High Street by Gustave Richard Lambert from Dresden, Germany, on 10 April 1867. The first mention of the studio was in an advertisement placed in The Singapore Daily Times on 11 April 1867. 27 The next reference to Lambert’s presence in Singapore appeared in the 19 May 1877 edition of The Straits Times, announcing his return from Europe, and the opening of his new studio at 30 Orchard Road.28

Janice Loo, Daguerreotypes To Dry Plates Photography in the 19th Century Singapore The oldest known photographs of Singapore were taken by Europeans in the early 1840s. Janice Loo charts the rise of commercial photography in the former British colony in: BiblioAsia, Oct–Dec 2019, Vol. 15, Issue 03, S. 9–19 https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/files/pdf/vol-15/v15-issue3_Daguerreotypes.pdf

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In Malaya, one of the earliest recollections of photography is by Munshi Abdullah (father of modern Malay literature), in 1849 (Hikayat Abudullah), when he mentions seeing an early daguerreotype view of Singapore – possibly in 1841. Gaston Dutronquoy appeared in Singapore and set up his studio, curiously named London Hotel, around 1839. Some years later photographic studios were opened by Danish Kristen Feilberg and German August Sachtler, Singapore (1864), called Sachtler & Co. Many believe that the physical studio had pre-existed the setting up of Sachtler & Co but the facts are uncertain. Kristen Feilberg soon followed with a photographic studio in Penang (1867) partnering E. Hermann Sachtler (thought to be August Sachtler’s brother).

in: dusun December 2011/ January 2012 Malaysian e-Journal of the Arts photography issue malaysian photography https://issuu.com/yusufmartin/docs/dusun_4/16

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Photographing Penang

in: More Than Merchants: A History of the German-speaking Community in Penang ... von Salma Nasution Khoo, S. 34, https://books.google.de/books?id=FLt3BYDPfBYC&pg=PA34&lpg=PA34

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Sachtler came to Singapore in 1863 and worked there as a commercial photographer to his death in April 1873.

Asher Rare Books Since 1830, Antiquariaat Forum No. 2, 2020, S. 45, https://www.asherbooks.com/uploads/catalogue/187/187_attachement_catalogue.pdf

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»... the occasional reference to Vietnam occasioned by visits to that country by celebrated photographers such as Jules Itier, John Thomson, August Sachtler and Wilhelm Burger, ...«

Early Photography in Vietnam 22 August 2020 By Terry Bennett in: The Classic, A Free Magazine About Classic Photography, https://theclassicphotomag.com/early-photography-in-vietnam/

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Literatur und Quellen

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Commons: MYR67/Artikelwerkstatt August Sachtler – Sammlung von Bildern, Videos und Audiodateien

Einzelnachweise

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  1. ↑ Sebastian Dobson, „The Prussian Expedition to Japan and its Photographic Activity in Nagasaki in 1861“, Beitrag zu: International Conference on Research of Old Japanese Photographs, "International Exchange Depicted in Old Photographs": November 16th-17th 2007, Nagasaki University, November 2007, http://hdl.handle.net/10069/23364; https://nagasaki-u.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=15467&file_id=18&file_no=1
  2. ↑ Janice Loo, „Daguerreotypes To Dry Plates. Photography in the 19th Century Singapore“, in: BiblioAsia, Vol. 15, Ausgabe Nr. 03, Oktober bis Dezember 2019, S. 9–19, https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/files/pdf/vol-15/v15-issue3_Daguerreotypes.pdf
  3. ↑ Janice Loo, „Daguerreotypes To Dry Plates. Photography in the 19th Century Singapore“, in: BiblioAsia, Vol. 15, Ausgabe Nr. 03, Oktober bis Dezember 2019, S. 9–19, S. 13, https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/files/pdf/vol-15/v15-issue3_Daguerreotypes.pdf, unter Hinweis auf eine Anzeige in: The Straits Times, 6. Juni 1874, S. 4
  4. ↑ Sebastian Dobson: „August Sachtler: A German Photographer in ‚Further India‘ and Beyond, 1860-73“, Vortrag vor der OAG am 10. Oktober 2018, https://oag.jp/events/sebastian-dobson-august-sachtler-a-german-photographer-in-further-india-1860-73/
  5. ↑ Terry Bennett, „Early Photography in Vietnam“, in: The Classic Photomag, 22. August 2020, https://theclassicphotomag.com/early-photography-in-vietnam/
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