(PHOTOGRAPHY--NEGATIVE IMAGES.) KNAFFL & BRO. Photographs From Life. Photographic catalogue, 5-1/2 x 8 inches with 21 images of African Americans photographed in the most absurdly stereotyped poses, with captions in dialect. Original decorative stiff black wrappers printed white. Knoxville, TN, circa 1890's-1900
Knaffl & Brother, 'High Class Photography', produced this series in 2 large formats; 16 x 20 and slightly smaller 9-1/2 x 12-1/2 inches, un-mounted; slightly larger mounted and framed. The poses are at best patronizing and a worst painfully demeaning. They were accomplished by hiring local blacks to pose. Joseph Knaffl (1861-1932) was a portrait photographer who apprenticed with his noted Prussian brother-in-law Theodore M. Schleier. The series was apparently a success, and the Knaffl Studio was in business until at least 1938. OCLC locates no copies of this catalogue.
