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Frederikke Jakobine Federspiel (1839–1913) was the first female photographer to practice in
Retrieved 1 February 2010. In her diary she records how much she enjoyed her year in Hamburg with many excursions, evenings at the theatre and wonderful meals.Tove Hansen: Kvindelige fotografer i Danmark før 1900. Fund og Forskning, Bind 29 (1990). From Tidsskrift.dk.
Retrieved 14 February 2010.
Frederikke Jakobine Federspiel (1839–1913) was the first female photographer to practice in Denmark
Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
. For many years, she ran her own photographic studio in Aalborg
Aalborg or Ålborg ( , , ) is Denmark's List of cities and towns in Denmark, fourth largest urban settlement (behind Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Odense) with a population of 119,862 (1 July 2022) in the town proper and an Urban area, urban populati ...
, always keeping abreast of the latest developments. Among her clients were the Danish princesses Dagmar and Alexandra
Alexandra () is a female given name of Greek origin. It is the first attested form of its variants, including Alexander (, ). Etymology, Etymologically, the name is a compound of the Greek verb (; meaning 'to defend') and (; genitive, GEN , ; ...
who were attracted by her photo enamel jewelry.
Early life
Born inHorsens
Horsens () is a city on the east coast of the Jutland region of Denmark. It is the seat of the Horsens municipality. The city's population is 64,418 (1 January 2025) and the municipality's population is 97,921 (), making it the List of cities and ...
, Jutland
Jutland (; , ''Jyske Halvø'' or ''Cimbriske Halvø''; , ''Kimbrische Halbinsel'' or ''Jütische Halbinsel'') is a peninsula of Northern Europe that forms the continental portion of Denmark and part of northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein). It ...
, she was brought up in a bourgeois home together with her sister and five brothers. Her father died when she was only six after which her mother earned a living as a milliner. After her mother's death in 1874, she went to Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
to learn photography. Living with her uncle, Poul Friedrich Lewitz, and her aunt Juliane, she became an apprentice to her cousin Alfred Lewitz, also a photographer.Frederikke Federspiel (1839-1913). From ''Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon.''Retrieved 1 February 2010. In her diary she records how much she enjoyed her year in Hamburg with many excursions, evenings at the theatre and wonderful meals.Tove Hansen: Kvindelige fotografer i Danmark før 1900. Fund og Forskning, Bind 29 (1990). From Tidsskrift.dk.
Retrieved 14 February 2010.
Working as a photographer
After completing her apprenticeship in 1876, Frederikke Federspiel returned to Denmark, where she was the first women to apply for a licence to trade in photography. She settled in Aalborg with her sister Sophie. While her sister exercised her trade in lingerie and embroidery in the living room, Frederikke set up a photographic studio on the top floor. There were already two photographers in Aalborg, one of whom was the well-established Heinrich Tønnies. She was aware of the competition but astutely publicized her business, always ensuring she kept up with evolving technology. For extended periods, she managed to run the second most prosperous photographic business in the city. In 1878, she fell ill and spent eight months in hospital followed by a further three months at St. Oluf's sanitorium inModum
Modum is a municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Vikersund. The municipality of Modum was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt).
The area has a long tradition of ...
, Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
. She was to return to the spa several times in later years. With her sister, she spent her summer holidays at the new seaside resorts of Blokhus
Blokhus is a village on the North Jutlandic Island, Denmark. It is located in Jammerbugt Municipality. Blokhus is a popular beach town with around 1 million visitors every year.
History
Blokhus was originally named ''Hune Hvarre''. In the early ...
, Løkken and Fanø
Fanø () is a Danish island in the North Sea off the coast of southwestern Denmark, and is the very northernmost of the Danish Wadden Sea Islands. Fanø Municipality () is the '' kommune'' that covers the island and its seat is the town of Nor ...
.
In 1883, Frederikke Federspiel and Nielsine Zehngraf from Randers
Randers () is a city in Randers Municipality, Central Denmark Region on the Jutland peninsula. It is List of cities and towns in Denmark, Denmark's sixth-largest city, with a population of 64,511 ().
In 1899, she started to produce enamel jewelry and cufflinks embedded with photographs using direct positives produced with a four-lensed multiplicator camera. She had made special arrangements for the equipment to be imported from the United States to facilitate the work. The jewelry was shown at a Christmas exhibition at Copenhagen's Industry Association, attracting the attention of the royal family. As a result, she was able to count Princess Alexandra and Tsaritsa Dagmar among her clients.
Keeping abreast of technology
Always interested in the latest technical developments, she was quick to start usingdry plate
The gelatin silver print is the most commonly used chemical process in black-and-white photography, and is the fundamental chemical process for modern analog color photography. As such, films and printing papers available for analog photography r ...
s which offered a safer and cheaper method of exposure and development. She was also one of the first to experiment with magnesium power for flash and she installed electric lamps in her studio when electricity came to Aalborg in 1901.
In the early 1900s, she began to sell cameras for amateur photographers. Among her students and assistants were Ernst Gøpel, Fritz Karner and Georg Bendtzen Holm who would later become leading photographers.
Overall assessment
Frederikke Federspiel constantly adopted developments in photography although, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of her studio, she stated that her business had not evolved as she had hoped. Nevertheless, when she died in 1913, the Dansk Fotografisk Tidsskrift (Danish Photography Magazine) characterized her as "an unusually likable, honest and energetic lady whose work has been counted among the best."See also
*Photography in Denmark
Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed in many ...
* History of photography
The history of photography began with the discovery of two critical principles: The first is camera obscura image projection; the second is the discovery that some substances are visibly altered by exposure to light. There are no artifacts or de ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Federspiel, Federikke 1839 births 1913 deaths Pioneers of photography 19th-century Danish photographers Danish women photographers People from Horsens 19th-century women photographers