Atelieri O. Haapala - Reviving the art of cabinet portraiture since 2008
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What is Atelieri O. Haapala?

Atelieri O. Haapala is a Neo-Victorian portraiture studio and a collaborative art project. The studio seeks to create anew the Victorian epoch by means of photography and performance art. The protagonists of this reenactment are Mrs. Onyxei Haapala and her faithful companion Mr. Helmut Schweinstein. Atelieri O. Haapala is the brainchild of Helsinki-based photographers Saara Salmi and Marco Melander, who have conducted the project since 2008.

Atelieri O. Haapala offers an alternative to everyday reality - the past. Atelieri O. Haapala does not aspire to faithfully replicate history, but rather to create fiction nostalgically inspired by the visual realm of the 19th and the 20th century, an era characterized by optimism and strong faith in technological development. In spite of using modern equipment to produce the photographs, Atelieri O. Haapala's inspiration and idols can be traced back to the dawn of photography and the bedrock found in the portrait painting tradition that is over five centuries old.

Atelieri O. Haapala began in 2008 by photographing at public events, mimicking 19th century touring photographers. In these events the duo take on their roles as the Victorian photographers Mrs. Haapala and Mr. Schweinstein. The public has had the opportunity to be photographed in the same fashion as a century ago, posing in front of a backdrop that was painted by hand. The finished portraits are made to resemble cabinet cards, photography prints of the late 1800's, completing the illusion of a real Victorian photography studio.

Although representing the art form of the 19th century, the studio does not constrain itself strictly to the Victorian era. Their historical timeline spans from the year 1839 to 1939. This carefully chosen time period of one hundred years begins from the moment the daguerrotype, the first widely adopted photography method, was made public domain by the French state, and ends in the unfortunate unfolding of the Second World War.

Atelieri O. Haapala, in addition to studio portraiture, still tours at public events. The studio has also created a series of photos that open a photographic portal into the curious world of Onyxei Haapala and Helmut Schweinstein.

 

 

 

 

 

Characters

Onyxei and Helmut are fond of hunting dodos and polar bears, enjoying absinthe, attending séances, tomb robbery, visiting bordellos (especially Helmut's favourite), watching stereographs (Onyxei's favourite), opium dens, dirigibles, can can dance, railways, steam engines, sideshows, croquet playing, hot air balloon rides, decadent poetry, hypnosis shows, the moving pictures, gintonics, automobiles, and of course - photography.

Onyxei Haapala
The founder of the Atelieri, the German-born Onyxei Haapala (née Schwarz, b. 1881) was widowed at a young age, when her husband, the bookkeeper Ernesti Haapala, died of pulmonary tuberculosis soon after their wedding. In order to secure a living Mrs Haapala invested her small inheritance in photographic apparatus and laboratory equipment. In Onyxei’s day, there were very few respectable professions open to women, but by working in a photographic studio, which was considered sufficiently decent, a woman, too, could achieve financial independence.

Helmut Schweinstein
Onyxei’s distant cousin Helmut Schweinstein (b. 1868) is a descendent of a family of German industrialists. The Schweinstein dynasty, which was ahead of its time, went bankrupt after investing its capital in a jersey barrier factory. The factory soon proved unprofitable. The days of autobahns and traffic jams had yet to arrive. After the family’s money had dwindled to nothing, Helmut plied an assortment of trades before hearing of the predicament of his distant cousin, and travelling to Finland to Mrs Haapala’s assistance.


*Cabinet Card refers to standard-sized 10.5 x 16.5 cm photographs mounted on card. This type of picture was very popular in the second half of the 19th century. The pictures were exposed on glass negatives and printed on light-sensitive paper, usually in sunlight. Enlargers were not used, instead the pictures were printed as contact copies. (A finished photographic print made as a contact copy is exactly the same size as the original negative image.) The card mounts used to back the cabinet portraits were often beautifully decorated. The edges of the card could be gilded, and the name and address of the photography studio were usually printed on the back.

Another type of photograph popular at that time was the calling card, which was slightly bigger than current visiting cards (c. 6.5 x 9.0 cm). These were left at places visited to commemorate the visit, and were collected in beautiful albums. The format was developed by the French photographer André Adolphe Disdéri in 1854. Cabinet portraits came onto the market in the following decade.