My friend Grethe’s grandmother was a photographer. Even though formally she was only recognized as a photographers assistant, she was indeed conducting her own photography assignments. My friend gave me the entire collection of her digitalized photo’s from around the turn of the century, to see if I could use them for something creative!
Meet Petrine Wiik:
This is Petrine’s engagement photos. She was born in 1884, and the other elegant fin de siècle ladies dressed in white are her sisters; named Ingeborg, Josefine, Johanne and Olufine. The last lady is her sister in-law.
The sisters were born in Støren, in Sør-Trøndelag, but by 1900 the family had moved to Ålesund where their father became a merchant. The coastal town of Ålesund is renowned for two things: It burned mostly to the ground in 1905 and it was rebuilt in Art Noveau style which is well preserved to this day. Thus present Ålesund has recently been elected the most beautiful town in Norway! At the time the new brick houses, were grand and spacious, they still are! The people of Ålesund erected a new town like a Phoenix out of the ashes. More modern, more enduring, more beautiful.
In the middle of the turmoil, was Petrine, a young lady with her camera. I am going to work through a few hundred photos my friend gifted to me, and share a few of them with you here, knowing I both enjoy uncovering the story they can still tell us, and you might enjoy using them in your art!
According to the Norwegian Digital Archives, Petrine married Bertel Mattland on October 23. 1910. My friend Grethe told me the bride and groom eloped to another coastal town, Molde, and got married there, because they both had such large families they could not afford arranging a “proper” wedding at home.
The Petrine Wiik Photography Collection was preserved on glass plates, and was digitalized a few years ago. I used the photo of Petrine and her sisters all dressed in white for my collage. Firstly I’m charmed by the fact that they actually had such a large photoshoot for an engagement, I have never seen that before. Secondly I am also very intrigued by the fact that the girls are all dressed in white, including white gloves, I have never seen t-h-a-t before either. For the wedding Petrine wore a black dress, according to the custom of the period.
I created my digital collage utilizing some fabulous pieces from The Old Design Shop! Thank you again Julie, for providing such a versatile selection 😀
You may download my engagement collage with Petrine and her sisters, and use it for a journal or in your art.
I’m also including Petrine’s original engagement photos, in high quality, should you wish to use them separately 🙂
Find your high quality copies of the files in the Petrine Wiik Photography Collectiont folder, free for your personal use and enjoyment 🙂 (Click on badge below to see the collection).
If you use these in your projects, please send me pictures, I know my friend Grethe would be thrilled to see what we can all come up with using her Grandmothers photography collection!!
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I have used elements from the following sources for these designs:
Vintage Rose Postcard – The Old Design Shop
Victorian Calling Card Roses – The Old Design Shop
Shabby Aged Endpapers – The Old Design Shop
Old & Grungy Film Textures – Lost & Taken
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Wings of Whimsy 
these are awesome. I look forward to more. so intriguing.
ps I think I was able to post my pic to your facebook page. let me know when you see it. it’s quite cute. we enjoyed using the printables.
Thank you! I will check the facebook page, now that I know I should look for something there…lol xoxoxo
These are indeed lovely and so unusual for engagement photographs. I can’t imagine getting married in a black dress but that must have been the norm. Thanks so much for sharing the story.
I am still very puzzled by the information that these are engagement photos, but that is what my friend says. Apparently she has another image of the couple that is their wedding photo. Regardless of this, I think those images with the be-gloved ladies all dressed in white are quite special. Petrine Wiik stopped working as a photographer when she got married, so these are some of the last images she did as a professional. Maybe she knew that, and set up this special photoshoot to “go out with a blast”…? lol
What a wonderful get! These will be wonderful to inspire and remind us all of loved ones past. Thank you for sharing them with us!
I could not agree more! When she first wanted to give me the collection, I almost refused, thinking I was not worthy of such a wonderful gift, or maybe that she did not know the amazing value of her collection! But she insisted I take it, and said they have already been used by the town of Ålesund, and gifted to the local public museum. She’d rather I could use them for my creative whimsies, and for her to be able to enjoy the images repeatedly, than for them to be stashed in the museums vaults where few people would see them! I am very honored by her gift and will certainly try my best to promote and create with the work of her Grandmother, and hope many of you will join me in an artistic endeavor 🙂 xoxoxo
Fascinating! Thank you for sharing the story, as well as the amazing images.
Thank you Dear 🙂 I love doing a little research about old images when I have the slightest little idea where to start… and here I was given not only a huge collection of images, but also a lot of information to work with! I promise I will present more of these images in due time, along with the Belle Epoque stories they represent 🙂 xoxoxo
such amazing photos-thanks for generously sharing them! I found the white/black dress info very interesting.
Apparently getting married in a black dress was more common in Scandinavia than elsewhere. It would also seem the custom ended with WW1, and since then white has been the most usual color here in Scandianvia, as in the rest of the Western World. (White became a popular option after Queen Victoria’s wedding in 1840). xoxoxo
WAUW these are sooo gorgeous sweetie. I just love these pics. Soooo amazing and beautiful dresses from these times and very unusual too. These will look amazing for many ideas from collages as you did here and to cards and decoupaged boxes or other projects. They are in an even exstremely good quality, thanks so much for sharing them.
Thank you for the idea on decoupage onto boxes! With this many different images from the same photoshoot, it can make an amazing box! I’ll be on the lookout for wooden or metal boxes now, to prettify with these 😀 xoxoxo
You certainly can make a real piece of art, and I can tell you, I know exactly the right box for it, if I can only find it here somewhere again, as it was sold here a couple years ago, but not quite sure, it´s sold anymore though, but I´ll keep my eyes up for it here, as I know, it would be “The perfect Box” for this project, and I can actually see it for my eyes, how it would look.
But you could also just print them out on tissuepaper and decoupage it to ordinary white boxes, that would also look amazing no doubt. I´ll just keep my mind open for more ideas now, that´s for sure, as this is such a great way to preserve these old relatives in a modern way too.
What a marvelous gift. I do appreciate the way you give links to your resources so thank you for that.
Thank you Sweetie! I try my very best to provide all links I can. But some of the images are my own, not yet published, like the background frame I used for the collage…:-P Having a blog is a circular thing: sometimes I publish an image, and use it later for a project, while other times I publish a project, and only later share the individual pieces…lol xoxoxo
This is really beautiful Gunnvor and I enjoyed reading the story! Thank you for the links back to my blog. 🙂
Julie
Thank you Dear 🙂 I am very happy that you keep providing all those lovely graphics, and enjoy using your high quality pieces in my work! 😀 xoxoxo
I know I should be focused on the photos, but it is the the little card that caught my eye.
Shortly after my Dad passed away the basement of his and my step-mom’s house flooded in a heavy storm without my step-mom realizing it. My brother and I pulled out box after box as well as the floors. The boxes were filled with ruined Christmas ornaments and ephemera Dad had picked up for his shop. The only pieces to survive were a plastic bag of these little cards and the last Christmas ornament I gave him. I have each of the cards neatly tucked into little album. I do want to get around to scanning them nicely to share. Some day.
Awww! That is such a sad but precious story! Please don’t wait too long on scanning his cards, you never know what can happen. At least modern day scanning and cloud storage will help us keep our files, even if the originals are forever lost! xoxoxo