Augusta Curiel
Augusta Curiel (born Augusta Cornelia Paulina Curiel; 13 December 1873 – 22 November 1937) was a photographer from Suriname. She was born in Paramaribo and, after her father left, used her mother’s surname. Together with her sister Anna, she ran one of Suriname’s best-known photo studios. They were called the Curiel sisters, and Augusta did the photography while Anna assisted.
For almost forty years, they photographed daily life in Suriname in the early 1900s, both in their studio and on plantations, in towns, and in the countryside. In 1929 Queen Wilhelmina named Augusta a hofleverancier, or royal supplier, making her the first Surinamese photographer for the Dutch royal house.
The sisters worked with a heavy wooden camera and glass plates. They often photographed with available light and without a light meter, producing clear pictures in churches, government buildings, and factories. Many photos show everyday life, schools, orphanages, and people at work. They also took portraits for schools and other institutions.
After Augusta died in 1937, Anna tried to keep the studio alive but sold it in the 1950s. In 2005, about 400 original glass negatives were found at the Surinaams Museum in Fort Zeelandia and later digitised. A collection was published in 2007 as Augusta Curiel, Photographer in Suriname from 1904 to 1937. In 2021, two Curiel photos were added to the Netherlands Photo Museum’s Gallery of Honour.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 12:42 (CET).