Hugo Erfurth; Dominikus B鰄m; Staatliche Landesbildstelle Hamburg; collection on the history of photography; silver gelatin paper; black and white positive process; image size: height: 60.5 cm; width: 46 cm; inscribed: verso o. in the middle: in lead: Dominikus B鰄m; stamp: verso in the middle: printed emblem of the GDL [Gesellschaft Deutscher Lichtbildner]; label: passepartout verso o. l.: in typescript: Hugo Erfurth; Dominikus B鰄m; handwritten with black felt-tip pen: 1938; Hugo Erfurth; Dresden/Cologne; Dominikus B鰄m; 1938; stamp: passepartout verso top left: top left: stamp of the Staatliche Landesbildstelle Hamburg; and in the middle handwritten with ballpoint pen: 258; portrait photography; portrait; architect; book; bust; en face; beard; Dominikus B鰄m; At the beginning of the 20th century; Hugo Erfurth is one of the most famous professional photographers in Germany; along with Rudolph D黨rkoop and Nicola Perscheid. After completing an apprenticeship as a photographer; he opened his own studio in Dresden at the age of only 22. Soon Erfurth orientated himself towards the up-and-coming pictorialist photography; participated in numerous amateur photographic exhibitions from 1894 onwards and managed to make a name for himself both as an artistically ennobled amateur and successful professional photographer. Portraits are central to his work; which he began taking in 1906 in his new studio; a classicist palace; in a stylishly elegant ambience; appealing to the wealthy bourgeoisie. He also produced numerous portraits of famous personalities; including K鋞he Kollwitz; Otto Dix and Joachim Ringelnatz. While his studies around 1905 still show full-length figures depicted in an atmospheric way; from the 1920s onward the focus is on the face; which is photographed against a simple monochrome background. Here; his pictorial approach corresponds to the portrait of classical modernism; whereby the technique of oil printing emphasizes the softness and materiality o