Clara Sipprell

Clara Sipprell (Octobet 31, 1885–December 27, 1975) was a Canadian-born, early 20th-century photographer who lived most of her life in the United States. She was well known for her pictorial landscapes and for portraits of many famous actors, artists, writers and scientists.

Clara Estelle Sipprell was born in Tillsonburg, Ontario, Canada on 31 October 1885. She was the sixth child and only daughter of Francis and Fanny Crabbe Sipprell. Her father died before she was born, and her mother had to find various housekeeping jobs in order to care for the family on her own. Since her mother had trouble finding dependable work, Sipprell’s older brothers lived for a while with their grandparents about fifty miles away from their home.

When they were old enough to work, three of her brothers moved to Buffalo, New York, and her brother Frank got a job as a photographer’s assistant. The brothers sent money back to their mother and encouraged her to join them when she could. At some point before she was ten years old, Sipprell and her mother moved to Buffalo, and, except for travels, she stayed in the United States the rest of her life.

In 1902, Frank borrowed money from an older brother and opened the Sipprell Photography Studio in Buffalo. From the start his sister was fascinated with what went on at the studio, and soon she was acting as Frank’s apprentice. At the age of sixteen she left school and became a full-time assistant, and over the next ten years she learned all of the technical aspects of photography in his studio. Later, Sipprell would credit her brother for both her technical and her aesthetic training, saying "He taught me all I seem to know. He taught me by letting me alone with my mistakes, and for that reason I never became conscious of the limitation of photography."

In her early years Sipprell took photos of landscapes around Buffalo. While learning the technical aspects of the art, she experimented with a wide range of photographic media, including bromoil, gum, carbon and platinum prints. She also made a series of color prints and continued to prefer that process even after higher quality color film was created.

Because of the work of George Eastman and the establishment of the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, the city became an important center for American photography in the early part of the 20th century. Sipprell became involved in the activities of the Buffalo Camera Club, which, although its membership was closed to women at the time, allowed her to participate because her brother Frank was a member. In 1910 she exhibited her first photos at the Camera Club, one of which won second prize in the portrait competition.

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