ND. Phot.

"The Parisian publishing house of the brother photographers Étienne (1832–1918) and Louis-Antonin Neurdein (1846–1914) was founded in Paris ca. 1885 and published postcards marked with an ND logo. However, Étienne already had begun publishing postcards in 1875 under the firm name Neurdein et Cie (founded by Étienne in 1864.) In 1887, both brothers ran the company, which was known as Neurdein Frères and as ND. Phot. beginning in 1906. In 1915, the name became Neurdein, and then again, from 1916 to 1918, Neurdein & Cie. The Neurdein company was the largest French publisher of postcards of the time. By the turn of the century, they were being funded by the French government to produce images and postcards of Algeria in order to promote colonial tourism and stimulate private investment. The number of Algerian images they produced were second only to their representations of France. They would send photographers to the colonies to take the pictures, process and edit them in Paris, and then market them to businesses in Algeria. The cards were divided into two categories: "views" of major cities and "types and costumes" of the local people. In 1913, the existing Neurdein postcard plates were acquired by Lévy et fils et Cie, and in 1920, Emile Crété acquired the two companies, and they were joined to form Lévy et Neurdein réunis, located at 44, rue Letellier, Paris, although some cards would continue to be issued either under the Neurdein logo (ND) or the Lévy logo (LL). In 1932, the joint company was acquired by the Compagnie des Arts Photoméchaniques (CAP), although the publishing house remained at 44, rue Letellier."

Reference: Rebecca J. DeRoo, "Colonial Collecting: French Women and Algerian Cartes Postales" in Postcards: Ephemeral Histories of Modernity, David Prochaska, and Jordana Mendelsohn, eds. (State College, Penn., Penn State University Press, 2010), 159–71.

SOURCE: 

“Neurdein Frères / Neurdein Et Cie / ND. Phot.” Dumbarton Oaks, December 24, 2016. https://www.doaks.org/research/library-archives/dumbarton-oaks-archives/collections/ephemera/names/nd-phot. Archived at https://perma.cc/H8UX-6NQ3