Gross Studio, a photographers’ studio and photograph gallery in Cobble Hill, was located at 184 Atlantic Ave. By the 1870s, however, Atlantic Avenue had been renumbered; city directories from that decade list the Gross Brothers’ photo studio at 176 Atlantic Ave.
The Gross Brothers were operating not long after the development of commercial photography itself. Cartes-de-visite, stereoscopes, ambrotypes, tintypes and other forms of nineteenth century photographs were invented in the decades before this photo was taken, making photography more readily available to mass audiences. However, innovations such as film and color photography were still years away.