Charles F. Bretzman (July 26, 1867 – January 19, 1934) founded the Bretzman Photo Company, also called the Bretzman Studio, in Indianapolis, Indiana, at the turn of the twentieth century and was a noted portrait and commercial photographer in the city for more than thirty years. In addition to operating his own photography studio, Bretzman worked for a few years as a staff photographer for three of Indianapolis's daily newspapers and became the first official photographer of the Indianapolis 500-mile automobile race. Bretzman's photographs documented Indianapolis's people, places, and events in the early decades of the twentieth century. His work includes portraits of notable individuals, such as Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley and Carl G. Fisher, a founder of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as well as photographs of the first Indianapolis 500 race in 1911 and other major events in the city's history.
The German-born photographer came to the United States in 1885 and traveled across the country for a few years before settling in Indianapolis in 1900 and establishing a photography studio on South Illinois Street. In 1914 he expanded his business to larger quarters on the top floor of the Fletcher Savings and Trust Building. Bretzman's son, C. Noble, and grandson, Erich, also became professional photographers in the family business. The Bretzman Photo Company closed after nearly eighty years in operation when Noble retired from full-time photography in 1976. Bretzman Photo Company photographs are in the collections of the Indiana Historical Society and the Library of Congress, among others.
Early life and family
Charles F. Bretzman was born on July 26, 1866, in Hanover, Germany, and came to the United States in 1885 at the age of nineteen. Charles became a naturalized citizen of the United States at Chicago, Illinois, on October 4, 1892.
Charles married his first wife, Catharine, in 1891; she died on May 23, 1904, at Indianapolis. Charles and his second wife, Bertha Grauel, were married on June 8, 1905, in Indianapolis. Charles Bretzman had two sons (Charles "Carl" F. and Charles Noble) and four daughters (Marie, Julia, Rosemary, and Bertha F.).
Charles "Carl" F. Bretzman ( –1958) the son of Charles and Catharine Bretzman, was born in Chicago and worked in his father's photography studio in Indianapolis before moving to the South; he worked as a professional photographer in the Mobile, Alabama-area.
Charles Noble Bretzman (1909–1986), the son of Charles and Bertha G. Bretzman, became "one of the country's top photographers." A graduate of Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, Indiana, Noble began his career as a journeyman photographer in his father's Indianapolis studio. After high school graduation, Noble took photography classes at a school run by professional photographers at Winona Lake in Kosciusko County, Indiana, before relocating to the East Coast. In the early 1930s, when Noble was a professional photographer in New York City, he became the first public relations photographer for the Radio City Music Hall.
Noble returned to Indianapolis after his father's death in 1934 to run the family's photography business. He specialized in portraits and commercial photography and brought a contemporary and distinctive photographic style to the city. In his later years, Noble became especially interested in photographing performance art, most notably ballet, and was a cofounding board member of Indianapolis's first professional ballet company and general manager of the Indianapolis Ballet Theatre. Noble also founded Bravo Project, Inc., a not-for-profit organization that encouraged Marion County, Indiana, youth in the performing arts.
Career
Early years
In his early career, Charles Bretzman worked for several years in large photography companies in New York City and elsewhere in the Midwest and eastern United States. He also engaged in photographic work in Denver and Pueblo, Colorado, as well as other cities in the western United States to gain a broad knowledge of the photography business. By 1894 he had become a partner in Koehne and Bretzman, a photography company in Chicago, Illinois.