Peter Elfelt (1 January 1866 – 18 February 1931) was a Danish
photographer
A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs.
Duties and types of photograp ...
and
film director
A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...
known as the first movie pioneer in Denmark when he began making
documentary film
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
s in 1897.
Biography
Peter Elfelt was born Peter Lars Petersen in Denmark on 1 January 1866. (He changed his name to Elfelt when he began making films.) He apprenticed in photography in
Hillerød
Hillerød () is a Denmark, Danish town with a population of 36,604 (1 January 2025)Jens Poul Andersen. In 1893, Elfelt opened his own atelier in Copenhagen with his two brothers as his assistants. As his photographic skills became appreciated, his business flourished and by 1901 Elfelt was named "Kongelige Hoffotograf" (Royal Court Photographer).
During a trip to
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
in 1896, Elfelt obtained a set of detailed ''Cinematographe'' plans from the French inventor
Jules Carpentier
Jules Carpentier (30 August 1851 – 30 June 1921) was a French engineer and inventor.
Jules Carpentier was a student at the French École polytechnique.
He bought the Ruhmkorff workshops in Paris when Heinrich Daniel Ruhmkorff died and ...
. He had a film camera constructed by Jens Poul Andersen. In the beginning of 1897, he shot the first Danish film – a one-minute sequence called '' Driving with Greenland Dogs'' (). During the following 15 years, he made short nature films and newsreels about the Danish royal family. Elfelt shot almost 200 short films in all.
In 1903 Elfelt filmed his only drama. The short film, titled '' Henrettelsen'' (''Capital Execution''), was the first fiction film made in Denmark. Based upon the actual execution of a French woman who murdered her two children, it starred the singer Francesca Nathansen and was filmed in the arcade of the Christiansborg Castle. There is some doubt whether the film was ever shown in public. When Elfelt was asked in 1926 if he had ever filmed a drama, he remembered being reluctant about this film.
Elfelt also shot the first advertising film. There is a 1904 example that advertises bock beer for the