John S. Bergheim
1894
Ghazaleh
[Wiener Photographische Blätter: Herausgegeben Vom Camera-Club In Wien]

Chine-colle Heliogravure
15.00 x 11.8 cm
 
Photoseed
Photograph courtesy PhotoSeed.com
 
Included in:
 
"Wiener Photographische Blätter: Herausgegeben Vom Camera-Club In Wien: 1894"
 
J. Blechinger, Wien, hel. & imp.: (Chine-colle)
 
Bergheim, of Austria, was an early member of the Linked Ring Brotherhood. He was known by that group as the "Smudger" and he went on to conceive along with Dallmeyer of London a soft focus lens that was used by Will Cadby, Pierre Dubreuil and Frederik Evans. Evans used the Dallmeyer-Bergheim for portraits and landscapes. Evans said of the lens: "The quality of the image given by the Dallmeyer-Bergheim lens, when at its best focus, pleases my eye extremely for its beautiful sense of modelling. There are no sharp lines anywhere and yet no sense of fuzziness: at close vision the image is of course distinctly unsatisfactory as regards pure definition: but at a proper distance there comes a delightfully real, living sense of modelling that is quite surprising, and most grateful and acceptable to the eye." from: W. Thomas, "The New Bergheim Lens", British Journal of Photography, May 6, 1921. Information taken from an online photographic auction conducted by Auction Team Koln : Lot #867: May 20, 2006
 
It is not known if Bergheim was using a lens of his own design at the time this photograph was taken. Web research indicates that the #1 Bergheim Soft Focus lens came out in 1895. However, there is a soft-focus look to the reproduction. The above information concerns a Dallmeyer-Bergheim lens dating from 1896. The following is a description of this lens: English: Early Soft Focus Brass Lens With variable focal lenth. Changing the focal length, the degree of diffusion changes as well! Focal length 25 to 40 in. Diameter 4 1/2 in. (Auction Team Koln)
 
LL/12590