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Alary & Geiser Algerian Carte-de-visite Album
91.R.6
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Title: Alary & Geiser Algerian carte-de-visite album
Date (inclusive): circa 1865
Number: 91.R.6
Creator/Collector:
Alary & Geiser
Physical Description:
1 album(s)
(33 photographs)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
Business Number: (310) 440-7390
Fax Number: (310) 440-7780
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: The album containing 33
cartes-de-visite by Alary & Geiser documents the architecture and people of Algeria in
the 1860s.
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Language: Collection material is in
French.
Alary & Geiser was a photographic firm of long standing in Algiers. Lucien-Jacob Geiser
(1810-1852), was an ébéniste by trade, who immigrated to Algeria from Switzerland with his
wife Julie and three sons in 1850. The exact nature of the business Geiser père established
in Algiers is not known, nor is the nature of his involvement with photography. Yet at some
point after her husband's death Madame Geiser, who would have taken over the business, went
into partnership with Jean-Baptiste Antoine Alary (1810-approximately 1867), an early
daguerreotypist. Eventually the youngest Geiser son, Jean-Théophile (1848-1923), became
involved with the photography business, running it into the 1920s.
Sources consulted:
Jacobson, Ken. Odalisques & Arabesques: Orientalist Photography, 1839-1925. London:
Quaritch, 2009.
Open for use by qualified researchers.
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Alary & Geiser Algerian carte-de-visite album, circa 1865, Getty Research Institute,
Research Library, Accession no. 91.R.6.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa91r6
Acquired in 1991.
Processed and cataloged by Beth Ann Guynn; finding aid encoded by Holly Larson with grant
funding from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) in 2009 and updated by
Guynn in 2020.
The album was digitized by the repository in 2009 and the images are available online:
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/91r6
Scope and Content of Collection
The album of 33 cartes-de-visite by Alary & Geiser documents the architecture and
people of Algeria. Included are architectural interiors and exteriors, nomadic camps with
tents and camels, and images of a variety of peoples photographed both in the studio and in
more natural outdoor settings. Occupational portraits include laborers, a water porter,
Spahis (Algerian cavalry), a wall painter, merchants, and street vendors. The sitters of a
few male portraits are identified by title or status. Other portraits emphasize traditional
dress while tropes such as "odalisque" or "dancer," common to an objectified European male
gaze, are used to identify their female subjects.
The album is bound in dark green leather. Its brass clasps are missing, but the latches
remain on the fore edge. Titles are taken from the captions written below the
carte-de-visite window opening on most of the mounts.
Arranged in a single series: Series I. Alary & Geiser Algerian carte-de-visite album,
circa 1865.
Vernacular architecture -- Algeria
Islamic architecture -- Algeria
Women -- Algeria
Algeria -- Description and travel
Albumen prints -- Algeria -- 19th century
Studio portraits -- Algeria -- 19th century
Cartes-de-visite -- Algeria -- 19th century
Photograph albums -- Algeria -- 19th century
Alary & Geiser