Museum-Studio Photographers

                                                                                                               (Punch, Or The London Charivari.  February 7, 1863)

In the beginning, the  unwieldy nature of photography  gave rise to the opening of photography studios.  It was very difficult for individuals to take pictures on their own, and few did.  If you wanted a daguerreotype, ambrotype, tintype, carte de visite,  cabinet card or formal portrait made you went to a professional photographer in a studio.  It was only by the beginning of the twentieth century that advances in technology made it  possible for everyman to easily take a photograph:  "You press the button and we do the rest."    However, photography studios never ceased to exist albeit in smaller numbers.     

   We still admire the pictures  of some 20th Century  studio photographers,  i.e. Mike Disfarmer, and James Van Der Zee are two examples.  The large body of work by many other such photographers  has, for the most part,  been lost .