The photograph is from the photo album "Types et Costumes de la Pologne", whose creator was professor of anthropology, physician and ethnographer Izydor Kopernicki (1825-1891). The exact time of the photo album's creation is unknown, however, based on its author's doctoral title on the cover and the dating of the earliest photographs in it, the time of its creation can be determined with high probability to be between 1880 and 1883. It must be remembered, however, that the photographs in the album are much earlier, as the oldest date from the 1860s . It was probably then that Kopernicki decided to collect photographic images of "folk types".
The photo album "Types et Costumes de la Pologne", together with his entire scientific legacy, was intended by Kopernicki for the Jagiellonian University; however, it was eventually added to the collection of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Krakow. From there, after more than twenty years, the photo album was transferred to the newly established Ethnographic Museum (1911), most probably through its founder, Seweryn Udziela (1857-1937), a member of the Academy.
The vast majority of the photographs collected and collated by Izydor Kopernicki in the photo album can be described as broadly defined ethnographic photography. The figures were carefully posed and the photographs were composed intentionally so as to give the viewer the impression of an objective registration of reality, capturing the "real" image. The author's overriding aim was to immortalise anthropological types (often with distinctive attributes), so it was necessary to some extent to universalise the representations and even to theatricalise them.
The photo album measures 31.8 cm in height, 48 cm in length and is bound in brown dyed leather with gilt embossed title letters: "Dr. I. KOPERNICKI/ Types et Costumes de la Pologne". The photo album contains thirty-two cards with 504 photographs, closed with two metal clasps. The hand-numbered boxes, arranged as eight on each of the sixty-three pages, contained photographs in the carte de visite format (a thin albumen print, usually measuring 6 x 10 cm and glued to a cardboard box), which had been popular since the mid 1850s . . The Jewish figures, to whom one-fifth of the entire album (104 photographs) is devoted, are arranged according to geographical criterion and bear captions in French: Juifs de Cracovie, de Léopol, divers endroits de Galicie, de Vilno, Varsovie, Berdyczew, Bohusław Gouv[ernora]t de Kiew, Kamieniec.
The author of the photograph is, as indicated by the studio vignette, Szymon Balicer (c. 1824-1885), a Krakow photographer of Jewish origin. He probably opened his first photographic studio in 1849 on ul. Grodzka (Grodzka Street), from where he relocated to ul. Kolejowa 16 (16 Kolejowa Street) [today's ul. Westerplatte (Westerplatte Street)] in 1883. It is difficult to determine whether Balicer had personal communication with Kopernicki but the fact remains that the largest number of Jewish "types" in the photo album (36 pieces) originated from his photographic studio. Unlike the photographs of Ignacy Krieger, the photographs taken at Balicer's photographic studio do not have the characteristics of ethnographic stylization and are most likely portraits of his clients.
The photograph portrays a Jewish couple from Krakow inside the photographic studio. On the left there is a woman sitting in a long dress with ruffles and a close-fitting jacket, leaning on a small round table. On her head there is an ornate headpiece, under which protrudes a piece of wig. Next to her there is a man wearing a long, dark double-breasted coat (gaberdine), tied with a belt. The man has a beard and payot, and a yarmulke on his head. The photograph was taken against a plain background and a patterned carpet.
