Café Central y Restaurant. Santiago de Chile. Hacia 1911.

Central Cafe and Restaurant. Santiago de Chile. Circa 1911.

Vintage gelatin silver print in black and white with a fine white margin -measures: 17 x 11 cm- the work is mounted on a special cardboard for photographs with the classic peripheral embellishments of fillets and endpapers printed in gold. The photographic authorship is confirmed through a semicircular wet stamp on the front and on the lower right corner of the secondary support. On the back there is a handwritten legend: “Central Cafe on Ahumada Street (broken) near the corner with Huérfanos. Owned by my parents for the years 1(broken) 1911”. Signed "Bieregel".

The urban image presents the ornate façade of the Central Café and Restaurant located in the central street Ahumada No. 272 ​​in Santiago de Chile, which, to date, belonged to the Biéregel family. The visual record is eloquent in its advertising data accompanied by the presence of the proud owner and a waiter in a white coat at the door of the business, pointing out that it also offers lunches and à la carte food. The raucous ornamentation is filled with flags and a large Chilean coat of arms on the keystone of the entrance lintel to the Café. Above the door are other national banners from various countries that are reiterated in symbols. The vertical image allows us to appreciate in all its magnitude the advertising effort of this gastronomic entrepreneur, who not only appeals to his local clientele, but also targets European immigrants and other nationalities residing in the Chilean capital.

The German photographer Hugo Wullfrodt (Halle. 1873 – Santiago de Chile. 1923), trained in his homeland, worked commercially in Santiago de Chile from 1901. Some sources mention him linked to the Canadian Obder Heffer and even to the American Harry G. Olds. While Olds, specialized in portraits, worked together with Heffer on this subject, in which he stood out until his definitive settlement in Buenos Aires,

Wullfrodt recorded in particular the capital's building complexes of which numerous photographs are preserved in the National Historical Museum of Santiago de Chile. He formed his photographic studio at Calle Puente No. 630 in this city, which would be continued by his daughter Ilse, who moved it to nearby Puente 637 in 1928. Wullfrodt in turn edited the Album of the Conciliar Seminary of Santiago de Chile in the year 1909 with notable records for its sharpness and quality. Finally, we are facing a specific commission in what is known as commercial photography and, in this case, the owner of the food establishment chose one of the best cameras in Santiago de Chile for this task.

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