When did "business card portrait" become popular?

19 in the 1950s, collodion wet lithography was born. Unlike Daguerre photography, the photos taken by this photography method can be developed in large quantities. At that time, people in the upper class in Europe carried "business cards" with their names, official titles (or identities) and addresses. With the appearance of collodion wet printing photography, a new way of making business cards from portraits-"business card portraits" came into being.

1854, French portrait photographer a? AdolpheDisderi invented a multi-lens camera, which can hold up photos the size of business cards. This camera has four lenses. Through these four lenses, it can be used in a 16? 5×2 1? On a 5 cm collodion glass plate, eight different postures were taken. When shooting, first take four poses on half of the glass plate, one for each shot. Then, rotate the glass by 180 degrees, and then make four postures. Finally, print this negative as a photo, cut it out and stick it on a card with a name on it, and it becomes a "business card portrait".

As soon as the business card portrait appeared, it quickly became popular in all countries, first from France to Britain, and then from Britain to the United States. People are keen to take portraits of business cards and give gifts to relatives and friends. Portraits of some celebrity business cards are also sold in stationery stores and post offices, and the price varies with the celebrity's fame, ranging from about 1 to 1/6 pounds each. Business card portraits are small, light and easy to collect. Therefore, the trend of establishing family photo albums has developed rapidly. Many families are collecting business card portraits of themselves, friends and celebrities. These portraits have uniform specifications, which can be displayed in specially designed external photo albums and placed on the table in the living room for guests to watch and browse.

People's enthusiasm for business card portraits has reached an alarming level. 1855 There were only 66 portrait studios in London, and 186 1 year increased to more than 200. Some workshops that print business card portraits print more than 3,000 business card portraits of celebrities every day. Some unscrupulous businessmen even remake the portraits of famous business cards and sell them illegally.

This craze for "business card portraits" did not fade away until the 1970s of 19.