12/22/2005
Carolyn Saul Logan Saul Studio is probably one of the oldest businesses on Sumner Avenue. Tracking its history parallels the changes in photography over the last 118 years. When Peter Frank (P.F.) Saul established the business in 1887, tintype and dry plate were used to catch photographic images. Film was the standard when his son, Lytton "Pete" Saul, took over the business during the Depression years. In the 1960s, when Lytton's son, Peter, became a partner in the business, color photography was the newest development. Denny Cox, owner of the business since 1981, has seen the latest revolution - digital photography. Film to Digital Denny Cox came to work at Saul Studio in 1973. Peter Saul operated the business and two other photographers, David Sandven and Al Meyer, were employed. Color film was still the standard, and so were studio portraits. Cox points out that location photography became popular in the seventies. The portrait sitting - with its backdrops, furniture, and artificial lighting - moved out of the studio to the outdoors, where trees, grass, and the river provided the background, and sunlight was the light source. Cox noted, "The first year I was here, we started photographing seniors outdoors. At the height of our senior business, we were doing over 800 a year." Cox bought the business from Peter Saul in 1981, and around four years ago began the shift from film to digital. "Now I spend my time in front of the computer, not in the dark room. For me, digital photography is a mixed bag. It frees up the photographer to try new things that can't be done with film and see the results immediately. However, the work load is increased, because I must take on more of the production process." Cox points out that though the advertising for digital cameras promises perfect photos, it is the person behind the camera that makes the difference. "You can have a state of the art kitchen and not be a good cook." For those who are looking to photography as a profession, Cox says that it is important to have the ability to pre-visualize - to be able to see in your mind the finished photo before capturing it with the camera. However, as well as the ability to take good photos, business acumen is needed. Cox added an MBA to his Bachelor of Professional Arts from Brooks Institute of Photography in order to fully prepare himself to own and operate a photographic business. Cox believes that film will gradually disappear and that digital photography is here to stay. And the future for Saul Studio? "I hope eventually to find a photographer, or even a group of photographers, who want to continue the business under the same name. Humboldt is a good town to live in and Saul Studio has been part of Humboldt for a long time." 1878 - Tintype and Dry Plate In 1878, Peter Frank Saul was 17-years-old when he apprenticed himself to a photographer in Freeport, IL. It was good timing. Congress had sent William Jackson and Tim O'Sullivan to photograph the West. Brady and other photographers captured images of the battlefields and drummer boys of the Civil War. Tintypes were on the way out and dry plates, an emulsion of gelatin and silver bromide on a glass plate, were being produced commercially. Anyone with the money to pay for it could have a portrait done in a photographic studio. By 1879, P.F. Saul was in business with a leading Freeport photographer, John L. Wareham. In 1883, he married Nellie Anthony. Humboldt might never have had a Saul Studio if Nellie Saul hadn't been lonesome for her sister, Emma Becker, who lived in Hardy. In 1887, Emma, alone on the farm, heard a rap at the back door. In her memoir, Emma recalls, "Who did I see standing there but Frank Saul. He said he had come to tell us he had been to Humboldt looking for a place to locate in business, and as he liked it, he had bought out a photograph gallery. He and sister Nellie would be moving out just as soon as they could get possession." P.F. Saul bought out a photographer named Parker and according to his obituary "came to Humboldt in 1887 and immediately became active in business and community work." One of the locations of P.F. Saul's studio was in a wooden building located on the corner where Worthington Insurance and Real Estate is now situated. He used a large, bulky Centuryview camera for his sittings. His portrait subjects were lit by natural light from skylights, incandescent lamps, or flash powder. As photographic processes improved, Saul changed from dry plates to cut film. P.F. Saul was not only a portrait photographer. He took photos of Humboldt and its surrounds for postcards, some tinted and printed by a firm in Germany. The black-and-white postcard business for the Studio continued into the 1950s. Saul also took panoramic views of Humboldt, some of the best from the heights of Dakota City. Saul even did a little animal photography. The Humboldt Republican reports in 1896 that "Photographer Saul recently finished some elegant pictures of that long-maned horse owned by Mr. Morse." Saul believed in expanding his business activities and being active in the community. He operated a second photographic plant in Heron Lake, MN, and sold land in Minnesota and North Dakota. He was an incorporator in the Mineral Springs Bottling Company in 1891, a charter member of the volunteer fire department and the Humboldt Camp Modern Woodmen of America. It was at a Woodsmen's picnic in Lu Verne, in June 1899, that an athletic event occurred that has become a legend - the meeting between a 21-year-old farm boy from Humboldt, Frank Gotch, and the then world wrestling champion, Dan McLeod. Saul took numerous photographs of Frank Gotch and went into an automobile dealership with Gotch and Albert Wittman in 1913. Saul also became a landlord. A 1910 article states, "Prominent among Humboldt's business blocks is the Saul Block at the eastern portion of Sumner Avenue, a block of business buildings constructed of brick and stone, and substantially put up. Mr. Saul is Humboldt's popular photographer. His buildings are always kept in neat repair, and never lack for tenants. He has done much to improve and build up Humboldt and make her what she is today." The Saul Block was just east of the Bicknell building, which was approximately where the Dollar Store is now. These buildings, and many more, were erected during the building boom of 1899. P.F. Saul's first wife, Nellie, died in 1892. In 1904, he married Carolyn Mary Ward, daughter of James Franklin Ward, who established the first hardware store in Springvale in 1867. The couple had two sons, Lytton Franklin "Pete" Saul, born in 1906, and Trafford Ward Saul, born in 1911. In the early 1930s P.F. Saul retired, and his sons took over the business. P.F. Saul lived with Lytton's family until his death in 1938. 30s to 50s - The Age of Black and White With the development of cheap, handheld cameras and roll film, anyone could "snap" a photo. During the Depression years, Lytton "Pete" Saul and his brother, Trafford, focused on finishing these snapshots. Classified ads for the Midwest Photo Company, as they called the operation, were placed in newspapers all over the country. Bags of mail, containing hundreds of black-and-white films, were delivered to Saul Studio, located in the basement of Reed's Jewelry Store. This business was located at 608 Sumner Avenue, next to the old Lane Clothing Store. It was not unusual for Pete to develop two to three hundred rolls of film in a day. Carol (Weir) McBurney worked at the Studio during those years. She remembers drying and sorting the snapshots and bundling them up to be sent out. The end of WWII signaled an end to shortages - and the photography business boomed. In the middle 1940s, Saul Studio moved to the south side of Sumner Avenue. The new premises were across from the Humota Theater, in what had been the shoe repair store owned by John Green. Saul Studio obtained one of the first Kodak dealerships in the state of Iowa, which meant they could sell the entire range of Kodak equipment and accessories. A camera shop, stocked with still and movie equipment, flashbulbs, and a wide range of film, was added to the portrait and photo-finishing operations. Camera clubs were organized, introducing many local people to photography as a hobby. Home movies and slide shows became the mainstay of many an evening's entertainment. Saul Studio was a family business. Trafford Saul had married and moved to Ames and Pete's wife, Feriba Spielman Saul, began working at the Studio soon after they were married in 1933. As they grew up, their children, Peter and Carolyn, also worked in the business - Peter in the darkrooms developing film and snapshots and Carolyn in the back room, taking on the tinting job from her mother. The Studio was after-school work for a number of high school students. Bob Baker, Roger Newton and Joyce (Edwards) Hansen are some who worked there. 1960s - The Switch to Color Black-and-white film was still the standard when Peter Saul went into partnership with his father, Lytton, in 1959. Saul Studio relocated to the former First National Bank premises at 605 Sumner in the early 1960s, and the stage was set for the next development. According to Peter, "Color photography was coming into its own." Previously, color was added to black-and-white portraits by tinting them with transparent oil colors. Now, portraits could be taken in natural color, eliminating the time-consuming tinting process. To do this, the light source for color photography had to change. Black-and-white portraits were lit with incandescent and florescent lights. To get the proper color balance in portraits, a broader light spectrum was necessary and strobe lighting, with its rapid, brief, and brilliant flashes of light, was installed. The equipment in the dark room changed as well. In addition to its black-and-white processing dark rooms, Saul Studio installed some of the first color processing equipment available. For several years, until the volume of work outstripped the equipment, the Studio did its own color cut film processing and printing. In the beginning of the color revolution, the usual 4x5 color cut film was used. As color roll film was perfected, a smaller format was possible. The large, unwieldy camera equipment became smaller and more portable, fueling the popularity of location photography in the 1970s. The sale of Saul Studio in 1981 marked the end of the Saul family's involvement in the photography business.
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The Humboldt
Independent • Official paper of Humboldt County
Telephone: (515)
332-2514 |
