The history of commercial photography began in Europe in 1839, with a slower kick-off in South Africa.
The first commercial photographer active in South Africa was Julius Léger (October 1846) – a Frenchman who first set up his photographic studio in Port Elizabeth.
The first commercial photographer to advertise his services in Cape Town on 6 April 1847, was the German citizen, Carel Sparmann, a short-lived professional daguerreotypist.
Until 1854, all overseas professional photographers to set up studios in South Africa arrived mainly from either Britain, Germany or France.
None of the early Cape daguerreotypists prospered. In December 1847, all of Sparmann’s photographic equipment was sold at a public auction at his residence. Amongst the photographic equipment auctioned, were four daguerreotype cameras. Another daguerreotypist, the Dutchman Van Zweel, did not fare any better, his studio only lasting a few months.
It was only after the daguerreotype patent had expired in 1853 that pressure was placed on William Henry Fox Talbot to release his hold on British photography, by first allowing amateurs to practise the calotype process (*) freely, followed by him dropping his application for the renewal of the patent that the pattern changed in terms of commercial photography, resulting in an influx of European photographers to South Africa.
(*) Calotype process - an early photographic technique where a sheet of paper coated with silver chloride was exposed to light in a camera obscura. Areas exposed to light became dark in tone, yielding a negative image.
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