In an earlier post (“St. Anton” – 24th September 2023), I suggested that James Edward Ellam (1857-1920) worked for 3D giants Underwood & Underwood as a travel views photographer.

A cache of 30 stereos from the 1890s that are attributable to him, and about which I’ve written this month, includes a second stereo that supports this idea.

Captioned “At Bruneck” in James’s hand, it features a 3D view taken through an archway into the street beyond.

Today the medieval town of Bruneck, its German name, is part of the South Tyrol province of Northern Italy where it is known as Brunico.

As with “St. Anton,” the stereo uses a light-coloured card suggesting it comes from the same time period.

In researching this series of blogposts about James, I had previously failed to identify a photograph of him.

In 2022, I used social media to try and locate one, but without success.

Yesterday’s stereo captioned “His Majesty” raised the possibility that it featured James.

Perhaps it was taken by his fellow 3D photography enthusiast Henry Bradley with whose family James lodged for around three decades in Yorkshire and later Essex.

The idea that I want to put forward in this penultimate post is that “At Bruneck” may be a 3D self-portrait by James.

Of my 30 stereos attributable to him, the word “at” only appears in the title given to this particular view.

Here, its use could be read as meaning that I, James Edward Ellam, am “At Bruneck.”

I’ve spent many hours looking at both stereos detecting similarities between the men featured, particularly their moustaches, their height, and their stance in which the left foot is favoured.

I’ll leave you to decide whether or not you agree.

Tomorrow: “JE Ellam (1857-1920).”

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.