Cesar von Düben

Cesar von Düben was a Swedish photographer, explorer and writer. A pioneering photographer working with the photographic process called daguerreotype, Von Düben set up, according to paper trails, the earliest known commercial photographic studio in Portuguese Macau. In addition, he wrote on the topic of travel literature.

Early life

Cesar von Düben was born a freiherr on 24 November 1819, in Stockholm, Sweden-Norway, and was the fifth of six children of Anders Gustaf and Carolina Maria von Düben, an immigrant from Swedish Pomerania. His father was a painter and a military personnel.

Career

Von Düben left Sweden in 1843, and spent fifteen years abroad and took up photography. He practiced in Southeast Asia, e.g. Mexico, Manila, Shanghai, Singapore, and in Macau in the 1850s, where he set up a photographic studio, which he announced in local newspapers. He then traveled to Hong Kong, where he set up the same business. Von Düben stayed longer than planned in the cities mentioned. He operated as a photographer at the Hotel der Nederlanden in 1857 too. Moreover, Von Düben and Herman Husband were the first to introduce daguerreotype photography in Shanghai.
In addition, he traveled through India, which he wrote about.
In 1871, Von Düben published a travelogue on the French Guiana, California, China, and the East Indies.
In 1886, Von Düben published another travelogue, Memories from Java.
Von Düben married writer Augusta Lillistråle on 18 June 1860. The couple had a daughter named Ingeborg, born in 1862.
Von Düben died on 18 September 1888, aged 68, in Skövde, Västergötland.