Jean Geiser

Places of work recorded in the authority are Algeria and Algiers. Work by Jean Geiser is recorded in the collections of Netherlands Photo Museum, National Museum of World Cultures, Wereldmuseum Rotterdam, Photography Collection and J. Paul Getty Museum. Distinctions recorded are Officier de l'Instruction publique.

• Born — 7 April 1848 • Birthplace — La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland • Died — 7 September 1923 • Place of death — Algiers, French Algeria • Occupation — Photographer and publisher of postcards • Years Active — 1868 – c. 1920 • Known for — Documentary and Orientalist photographs of North Africa

Geiser was born in 1848 in the French-speaking region of Switzerland, but was professionally active in North Africa. He mainly worked in Algiers, the capital of the former colony of French Algeria, where he grew up. In 1850, his parents moved to Algiers with Jean and his brothers. After the early death of his father, Geiser apprenticed as a photographer at the studio of Jean-Baptiste Alary & Geiser, where his mother Julie was a partner. When his brother James Geiser later joined the business, it became known as Geiser Frères. In 1874, he took the studio and the existing photographic stock over as the sole owner, turning it into a successful photo studio in Bab Azoun in the new colonial neighbourhood of Algiers. Additionally, he ran a branch office in Blida. • Illustration — "Types and scenes of Algeria" - Ouled Naïl Due to his reputation as one of the important photographers in colonial Algeria, Geiser was awarded gold and silver medals at international exhibitions in Lyon (1872), Vienna (1873), Paris (1856, 1878, 1892) and Amsterdam (1883). When French emperor Napoleon III visited Algiers in 1865, Geiser documented the emperor's journey and major events of his visit as one of the official photographers. His large photographic output includes urban views, landscapes, portraits of colonial personalities, ethnic "types" and "scenes", as well as eroticised images of Algerian women. Geiser reproduced many of these as picture postcards around the beginning of the 20th century, when this photographic format became more popular than the earlier cartes de visite. After approximately 70 years of operation, Geiser sold his family-run studio in late 1921 to photographer Albert Jouve, who took the studio over as Successeur of the Geiser studio.

• Illustration — Postcard with city view of Algiers • Illustration — Sorbet seller in Algiers, c. 1880 • Illustration — Young woman from the South • Illustration — Studio portrait of nudes, c. 1900

Jean Geiser is established in Library of Congress under no2002086935. Established in RKDartists under 417889. Established in FAST under 1953534. Recorded as photographer. Recognition and collections. Geiser received Officier de l'Instruction publique.

The National Library of France owns 74 photographic prints on albumen paper and photogravures by Jean Geiser and Alary & Geiser, published between 1850 and 1892. Additionally, the library holds a 1882 general catalogue of Jean Geiser's photographic images. In the Netherlands, the National Maritime Museum also owns turn-of-the-century photographs of ships by Geiser. In the United States, the Getty Research Institute's Ken and Jenny Jacobson Orientalist Photography Collection possesses both albumen silver prints, cartes de visite, and postcards by Geiser, while the Victoria & Albert Museum in London also owns a carte de visite studio photograph.