In 1886 20-year-old Ellisif R. Müller (1866-1949) married her cousin, regional doctor Andreas Wessel. The marriage led her to Kirkenes, where they lived out their lives. It was there, in her new home, that she made her debut as a photographer.
In Finnmark Wessel encountered a reality which stood in stark contrast to that of her protected bourgeois youth. She photographed what she saw: people, the buildings they lived in, and the landscape around them. Like well known documentary photographers such as Jacob A. Riis (1849-1914) and Lewis Hine (1874-1940) she uses photography to document social injustice. The motifs lead us toward what would become her life's most important concern: the battle for human worth and dignity among workers and minorities.
The first photographs signed Ellisif Wessel are dated 1890, but she seems most active between 1895 and 1918. Most motifs are taken with a Hasselblad box camera, the Svensk Express 4B [Swedish Express 4B]. Wessel used dry plates, and we know from her personal letters that she herself developed the glass plates and copied her photographs.
These photographs from the Preus Museum collection are contact copies of the glass plates, with the sun as a light source in the copying process.
In Finnmark Wessel encountered a reality which stood in stark contrast to that of her protected bourgeois youth. She photographed what she saw: people, the buildings they lived in, and the landscape around them. Like well known documentary photographers such as Jacob A. Riis (1849-1914) and Lewis Hine (1874-1940) she uses photography to document social injustice. The motifs lead us toward what would become her life's most important concern: the battle for human worth and dignity among workers and minorities.
The first photographs signed Ellisif Wessel are dated 1890, but she seems most active between 1895 and 1918. Most motifs are taken with a Hasselblad box camera, the Svensk Express 4B [Swedish Express 4B]. Wessel used dry plates, and we know from her personal letters that she herself developed the glass plates and copied her photographs.
These photographs from the Preus Museum collection are contact copies of the glass plates, with the sun as a light source in the copying process.
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| A group of children and adults in front of school in rural areas in Russia |
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| A group of schoolchildren |
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| Adults and children photographed in front of a house |
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| Adults and children photographed in front of a large house, Boris Gleb |
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| Alta farm |
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| Church and several houses by a fjord, Kirkenes |
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| Flower in Kirkenes |
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| Four men at Treriksrøysa-the border between Norway, Finland and Russia |
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| From Bjørnevann, near Grupe |
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| From the bridge in the fishing village of Kiberg. Samer puts bait on liner |
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| Group portrait of five workers, Kirkenes |
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| Group portrait of men on the beach |
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| Group portrait of school family in open air |
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| Life at Kirkenes |
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| Man in front of two rolled boats (Russian side of the river) |
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| Man photographed in front of a house, Grense Jakobselv |
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| Man with reindeer in front of house at Solheim |
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| Midnight sun of Bøkfjorden |
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| Old mountain fountain above Grense Jakobselv village |
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| Pechenga monastery church in winter landscape, priests on their way home |
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| People on a boat at the shore of Kirkenes |
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| Ponds in the forest with reindeer in the foreground |
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| Portrait of man with ski boot |
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| Portrait of Marit Banne with her daughter Inga |
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| Reindeer with sledding in winter |
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| Reindeer with sledge |
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| River in the background, in front of pine forest with rolled trees, Grensefoss, Pasvik |
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| Road through deciduous forest, Prestegårdsallee Kirkenes |
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| Samer with dogs outside the tent, Sør-Varanger |
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| Settlement in Boris Gleb. In the background Pechenga monastery church |
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| Ship in a fjord |
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| Telegraph workers in Grense Jakobselv |
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| The altar, Church of Boris Gleb |
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| The harbor in Vardø |
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| Three people and three reindeer with sledge in mountain scenery, Neiden, Sør-Varanger |
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| Three people in a boat |
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| Three people in the pine forest, Skogfoss in Passvikdalen |
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| Two men in front of a skigard, Skoltefossen, Sor-Varanger |
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| Two people in a boat at 1st K.water, Sennegras harvested |
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| Two women and one man photographed in front of a common square, Vestre Jakobeselv |
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| View of lake Vaggetem Javrre. In the background the mountain Galgo-oalvve (Kjærringhodet) |
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| View of the Kirkenes water network |
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| View of the sea. Beach by a wooden boat |
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| View of the water from Salmijersei |
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| View of the water, mountains in the background |
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| View of the water |
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| Wedding in Boris Gleb |
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| Wessel, Ellisif Rannveig |
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| Woman cooks in Skoltegamme |
