C. Leibinger, Carte-de-Visite, 1879-84

Following my lecture on the invention of photography, one of my keen students gave me this carte-de-visite she had purchased for one dollar. Thanks Brianna.

Carl Leibinger took this portrait of an unknown man in about 1880. Would he be surprised that his style of beard would be in fashion 135 years later? Liebinger was a travelling photographer in the colony of New South Wales setting up a temporary studio in various towns as opportunity arose. Photography was a growth business, a record shows him in the small town of Queanbeyan in 1868, competing with two other itinerant photographers.

He set up in Newcastle from 1879 to 1884, when my photograph was made, and later moved to Sydney. He died in 1928. This quaint advertisement appeared in 1880:

Carl Leibinger, Artist and Photographer, Near Markets, Hunter Street, Newcastle.
Photography executed in all branches of the art. Life-size Portraits in Oil,
Crayon, or Water Colours. Cabinets, Carte de Visites. Portraits in Brooches and
Lockets with a finish not to be surpassed in the Northern District.

.