On May 16, 1882, two men in their thirties and a woman barely twenty-one years old entered a photography studio at No. 50, Zurcherstrasse in Luzern, Switzerland.
The proprietor-photographer, Jules Bonnet, smiled broadly when the trio informed him that they wished to pose for a photograph in the form of a tableau vivant to commemorate a very happy personal arrangement they had just made.
Bonnet suggested various poses, but the older man, Fritz, insisted on setting up the shot. Fritz rummaged through the studio, assembled various props, improvised others, and finally set the scene in front of a large backdrop, a diorama depicting the mountain known as Die Jungfrau. When all was ready, the three posed and Bonnet, beneath the black hood of his view camera, made the exposure.
The picture that was taken that afternoon would become famous, indeed infamous, and on account of its enigmatic aspects it is still discussed and argued about more than one hundred thirty years after it was taken.