Alberto Henschel

Alberto Henschel (13 June 1827 – 30 June 1882) was a German-born Brazilian photographer born in Berlin. Considered the hardest-working photographer and businessman in 19th-century Brazil, with offices in Pernambuco, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo, Henschel was also responsible for the presence of other professional photographers in the country, including his compatriot Karl Ernst Papf—with whom he later worked. and for being an excellent portraitist. He earned the title of Photographo da Casa Imperial (Photographer of the Royal House), and his family. This title would give his photographs increased recognition and raise their price.

But his principal contribution to the history of Brazilian photography is his photographic record of the different social classes in Brazil in the 19th century: portraits, usually in the carte de visite format, taken of the nobility, of rich tradesmen, of the middle-class, and of black people, either slaves or free, of the Indians, the exotic landscapes, the abundance of wild animals and the new species of plants in which he describes his journey through the country with wonder and enthusiasm, his words accompanied by luxuriant illustrations.

Certainly these narrations and illustrations were the principal attractions for those German photographers of the 19th century that moved to Brazil, such as Revert Henrique Klumb, Augusto Stahl, Karl Ernst Papf, and Alberto Henschel.

In Brazil

1860s Nude of young Black girl. Salvador, province of Bahia (1869) Henschel and his associate Karl Heinrich Gutzlaff disembarked in Recife in May 1866, intending to create a photographic studio on Imperador street, number 38.

By the end of the 1860s, Henschel's houses of Recife and Salvador were already making portraits of people of African origin, slaves and free, differing from other photographers by portraying them freely and with dignity as people and not as objects.

1870s In 1870, Henschel opened another subsidiary of his atelier, this time in Rio de Janeiro, on Ourives street (nowadays Miguel Couto street, number 40). His arrival in São Paulo was considered important because, besides being holder of the prestigious title of Photographo da Casa Imperial, he came directly from the Court. The newspaper A Província de São Paulo (currently O Estado de S. Paulo), while describing with minimal details the new atelier in its inaugural day edition, related the enthusiasm with which Henschel was received by the residents of São Paulo.

He photographed all the different social classes of Brazil in the 19th century. Besides the Brazilian monarchy and black people, he also photographed the nobility, the rich tradesmen and their families, and the white middle-class.

Footnotes Some biographies state that he died in São Paulo. There are biographical records that indicate the year of 1881 instead of 1882.