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4Photo Studio: Heinrich Gelpke
Lithography: Bernhard Wachtl Wien
Time period: 1890 - 1895
City: Viena

Souvenir - Mania ‘selfie’ de secol XIX

TC #10 / 2019, November
Over 150 years before the selfie, the trend was to socialize through carte-de-visites: small portraits printed and mounted on cardboard. Through a look at the back of the photos, the exhibition showcases spectacular samples of typographic exploration created at the beginning of the 20th century. Designed in European lithographic workshops, the artworks include volumetric floral letters, elaborate monograms, slanted calligraphy integrated in complex compositions. By expanding the graphics to poster size, an in-depth observation of the detail is encouraged. The quality of the execution is striking, evoking the lost mastery of another era.