Caroline Hammer (1832-1915) from Denmark was the first photographer to be active on the North Sea island of Föhr. At the same time she belonged to the first generation of female photographers who worked freelance and had their own studio. The plein-air photographs she made between 1860 and 1880 are among the first photographic documents of the North Sea resort of Wyk. While creating photographic portraits of residents and visitors to the island in her beach studio, Hammer would also set out on photographic forays into the surrounding areas and capture individual buildings, the Wyk boardwalk, as well as bathing machines and sailboats. Starting in the mid-19th century, the convenient portrait format of the cartes de visite led to a boom in commercial photography. With her views of nature and architecture Caroline Hammer created photographic souvenir pictures. As it allowed her to discover her own environment, the new medium of photography, in her hands, became distinctly reflective of independence and emancipation. This comprehensive presentation of photographs by Caroline Hammer and by subsequent photographers such as Arthur Vianna de Lima (active 1886-1890) and Wilhelm Dreesen (1840-1926), provides vivid insights into Wyk’s past and at the same time aims to make a fundamental contribution to the history of Danish-German photography and culture before 1900.
A catalogue will be published in conjunction with the exhibition.