Piil's Studio

Above the offices of local newspaper Norra Skåne (still in print today), was one of master photographer Herman Piil's studios during the early 1900s. We have him and Wilma Piil, also a photographer, to thank for many of the truly old photographs of Hässleholm. Herman's father and grandfather had worked as photographers - which was very unusual given that photography was still in its infancy in when Herman started his career at the end of the 19th century. His grandfather was even something of a pioneer in the 1830s - he developed a method for developing photos called "kempitypie". Up until the around the mid 1800s the photographer had to hold the camera shutter still for several minutes in order to get a clear photograph. This meant that capturing objects (or people) in motion was more or less impossible as they would come out blurry. But thanks to technical development the necessary exposure was radically shortened, meaning that photographers could suddenly capture people going about their business in a more natural way. In some older photos you'll see something curios: Passersby are standing turned towards the photographer, even though they have nothing to do with the photograph being taken. Perhaps they were scared of being blurred out, or maybe it was just still something quite special to figure in photographs. The fate of the building is also interesting in its own right - the town square was enlarged to accomodate more market stalls in the 1900s, so the building was simply moved to Godtemplaregatan - wehere parts of it still stands today.

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• Årtal: 1900
• Historisk plats ur Be Here Then

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