Erik Overbey Photo Gallery

  • Erik Overbey Photo Gallery - gentleman
  • Erik Overbey Photo Gallery - 3 New York Yankees
  • Erik Overbey Photo Gallery - Albright and Wood drug store
  • Erik Overbey Photo Gallery - interior of bar
  • Erik Overbey Photo Gallery - lady
  • Erik Overbey Photo Gallery - Sunny South
  • Erik Overbey Photo Gallery - Roxy Theater showing Gone with the Wind
  • Erik Overbey Photo Gallery - M.D. Oliver and big catch in Coden Alabama
  • Erik Overbey Photo Gallery - Billups
  • Erik Overbey Photo Gallery - George's Candy Store, Mobile Alabama
  • Erik Overbey Photo Gallery - ladies at the beach
  • Erik Overbey Photo Gallery - Mardi Gras king and queen
  • Erik Overbey Photo Gallery - cabin interior
  • Erik Overbey Photo Gallery - fishing boats unloading
  • Erik Overbey Photo Gallery - CD Kenny Co Teas, Coffees, Sugars
  • Erik Overbey Photo Gallery - Bankhead Tunnel under construction

Erik Overbey (1882-1977), a native of Hafslo, Sogn, Norway, operated a photographic studio in Mobile from 1903 to 1958. During that time he chronicled the life of the city in thousands of ways. Overbey used an 8 x 10 camera until the late 1940s and a 5 x 7 thereafter. His work was straight and clean, and he probably thought of himself as a craftsman rather than an artist. Although he made thousands of portraits, he was in his element as an industrial photographer. Using form and mass, he composed to make the commonplace extraordinary. Perhaps in hopes of reprint business, Overbey purchased the negative collection of an earlier studio, W. A. Reed. As a result the Overbey Collection includes negatives dating back to the 1880s.

OVERBEY, ERIK (81-02-51, 81-03-48, 81-07-50, 81-03-49, 85-01-01, 85-02-02, 85-07-04, 85-08-05, 85-03-03, 09-07-51)
Within the larger collections of Erik Overbey are more than 45,000 portraits dating from circa 1880 to the 1950s. Included are glass plates, nitrate negatives, and safety negatives.

 

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