19th Century Manipulated Photograph
Alley in Chinatown, S.F., Cal. (B 1)
Publication: San Francisco: Taber Photo. [ca. 1890].
Notes: A brown toned albumen silver print of one of one of Taber's most enigmatic views of San Francisco's always bustling Chinatown—an improbably empty alley with a ghostly image of a child at the intersection of two streets.
Taber obviously retouched the negative to remove figures from the upper part of the alley, leaving faint ghosts behind and indistinct details. The child appears to have been added to insert an element of drama to the scene. The business sign, on the left side of the street, was enhanced in the negative by someone who did not know how to write Chinese characters.
4-7/8 by 8 inches on a slightly larger modern(?) thin paper mount. Captioned in the negative in a narrow strip along the bottom of the image.
Edition + Condition: This image has brown tones, with good contrast.
Item No: #364050
Price: $300