Zurich’s first female photographer
In its early days, photography was often seen as a male domain. However, some females were also among the pioneers of the new art form in the 19th century, including in Switzerland. One of them was Regula Rathgeb, who even wanted to set up her own studio.
Saro Pepe
Saro Pepe is an archivist and works for Baugeschichtliches Archiv Zürich. He guides the ‘Zurich is being photographed’ tour for Stattreisen.
Even back then, the directory had almost 100 entries for large cities like Berlin or Vienna. The city of Zurich had eleven names, ten of which were men plus ‘Mrs Rathgeb’. Thanks to various documents, which came to light following the ‘Fotoateliers in Zürich’ exhibition on the city’s photo studios, it became possible to trace parts of the life of the woman who was probably Zurich’s first female professional photographer.
A turbulent marriage
Eiffert pled guilty and had to pay Rathgeb 500 francs in compensation to “help her make a new start”. He also had to pay court costs of just under 50 francs.
Project beset by obstacles
An interesting find in the building inspectors’ archives shows that the photographer set her sights high: Rathgeb planned to build a glass photo studio in the autumn of 1864. Spaces like these became more of a feature from the mid-1850s as professional people started to gravitate more towards the cities. It required a lot of natural light to achieve good photographic results, as there was no artificial light in those days. The small constructions made entirely of window glass looked like greenhouses and were erected at ground level or on the rooftops of houses several storeys high.
There were more than 100 photo studios in the city of Zurich from 1855 to 1915. They were used mainly for people and portrait photography. e-pics
As you know, the owner Mr Linsi acquired house no. 341 while the building code was coming into force and, in the face of objections, he significantly exceeded the maximum height for his house. We do not know what was behind this; now we have Mrs Rathgeb, a person we don’t know, who is putting a structure on the top of the building in question, against which we believe we have every right to object […]
The planning application was ultimately rejected as the house was already too high. Rathgeb was really unlucky, because the building inspectors’ report had approved the plans, but the higher-ranking building commission issued a recommendation to the City Council to withhold approval. Last ditch attempts to find a solution by making the studio smaller or restricting the project to two years were launched by way of appeal against the decision, but in vain.
Much like her photos, knowledge of Regula Rathgeb’s subsequent photography career and of whether she managed to find a studio somewhere else has disappeared into the mists of time. Although we do know that she was no longer listed among the ‘photographers’ in the 1867 Zurich directory, meaning she was probably employed by someone else instead of managing her own studio. She was listed as a ‘photographer’ again in records dating from 1868. From 1879, she appeared in the address book as a ‘tailor’. Regula Rathgeb died on 26 March 1899 in Zurich at the age of 71.
