Seidel Photo Studio Museum

Visit the picturesque Art Nouveau house in the centre of Český Krumlov and take a look at an exhibition which will captivate not only photographic enthusiasts. During the hour-long tour, you can learn more about the time when photography was only just beginning, and about the fortunes of the family of the photographer, Josef Seidl, who established this photographic studio here.

Visit the picturesque Art Nouveau house in the centre of Český Krumlov and take a look at an exhibition which will captivate not only photographic enthusiasts. During the hour-long tour, you can learn more about the time when photography was only just beginning, and about the fortunes of the family of the photographer, Josef Seidl, who established this photographic studio here.

The house dating back to 1905 is a unique cultural monument, which is exceptional not only due to the well-preserved nature of the building, but above all due to the scope of preserved equipment and collections of photographs which were created here.

Other than the fixtures and fittings of the house, which have been preserved from the time when Josef Seidel and his family lived here, a fully equipped photographic studio is on display here, a darkroom and space for processing of photographs. In the loft of the house, to which nobody had access for many years, a unique and extensive collection of negatives was found, mapping life at the turn of the 20th century seen through the eyes of the photographer.

Josef Seidel, also dubbed the “Šumava Photographer”, mainly photographed the Šumava border area in 1888 to 1935. He was pioneer of skiing and he not only skied to take his shots, but also travelled by bicycle and later motorised bicycle. He was an enthusiastic innovator, creating the first panoramic shots and colour picture postcards.

A unique project is currently being created on the website of the photographic studio consisting of a database of job order ledgers, which should make it possible for the public to search for photographs of their loved ones.

This June a new museum for those interested in photography and life in the 19th century opened in Český Krumlov. It provides an opportunity to take a look around the house where photographer Josef Seidel and later his son, František, lived and worked. Among other things they both documented life in the now abandoned border region of the Šumava.

In the house dating from 1905, the family home and photographic studio until 1949, almost 140,000 glass plates and celluloid negatives have survived and form a kind of chronicle of the Šumava region and everyday life along the border in the early 20th century. The original furnishings and fittings have also been preserved, most notably the studio with its many period instruments, gadgets and bits of decoration, as well as detailed records such as the names and addresses of people who ordered portraits, accounts, lists and similar documents.

Josef Seidel (a German by birth) was born into a family of glass engravers on October 2, 1859 in the village of Hasel in the Děčín District. Having learnt his trade as a photographer's assistant in Transylvania, Hungary, Bohemia and Austria, he worked for two years in Vienna for a company that made photographic plates. In 1888 he became the head of a photo studio in Český Krumlov belonging to one Gotthard Zimmer (1847-1886), which was run by his wife Karolina when he died. Two years later Seidel took over the studio in the garden of No. 64 Linecká Street.