Alfred NOACK (A. Noack)

Born in Dresden in 1833, Alfred Noack studied illustration and wood etching at the Academy of Fine Arts in his home town. At the age of 23, like many European artists of the time, he moved to Rome to get closer to the sources of classical art. He worked as an etcher for the German Archaeological Institute. In 1860, he took up photography, immortalising a number of towns in northern Italy. A year later, he settled in Genoa, where he opened a photography studio. With the help of his second son, he produced some 4,000 photographs, mainly of Genoa and the Ligurian coast, until his death in 1895. His photographs celebrate the beauty of the landscape and architecture as well as the life of working-class neighbourhoods.