In Wiesbaden, numerous sights and spa guests offered portrait and object photographers a broad field of activity. Visits to Wiesbaden by traveling photographers from Austria, France and Switzerland have been documented since 1842. In 1843, Carl Ziß set up the first studio in Wiesbaden. He took the first surviving photograph of Wiesbaden, showing the Russian Church in 1853 before its consecration, for Princess Tekla zu Wied's album of memories.

In the 1850s, many photographers continued to come to the city only during the spa season. By 1866, 13 photographers, including one woman, were offering their services. The painter Ottilie Wiegand from Berlin, court photographer to the Duke of Nassau, ran her studio in Taunusstrasse from 1862-1902. Many of the early photographers initially practised a different profession: Ziß was originally a lithographer, while Hermann Gläser from Darmstadt was a drawing teacher, silhouette artist or bookbinder before turning to photography.

Peter Mondel from Erbach, however, came to Wiesbaden as a photographer in 1860. Together with Emil Jacob, he founded the studio "Mondel & Jacob", which later made a name for itself with its large-format architectural photographs. Under Mondel's artistic direction, he subsequently produced highly professional images of classic Wiesbaden motifs such as the old theater with the Hotel Nassauer Hof, the Kaiser-Wilhelms-Heilanstalt or the older Kurhaus. Mondel & Jacob's large-format works were never able to establish themselves on the mass market. Small souvenir pictures in business card format prevailed before the triumphant advance of the picture postcard began at the beginning of the 20th century.

Adolf Elnain (1877-1945) set lasting accents with artistic portrait photos of the greats of his time in the highest quality. Elnain learned his trade in the studio of the Frankfurt photographer J. B. Ciolina. After arriving in Wiesbaden in 1903, he temporarily ran his studio on the mezzanine floor of the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten. In addition to spa guests from Germany and abroad, his models included wealthy aristocrats, such as Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse, scholars, statesmen and artists, and after the First World War also officers of the French and British occupying forces as well as politicians, actresses, painters, poets and musicians.

In April 1901, an "Amateur Photographers' Association" was founded in Wiesbaden, which offered its members a sophisticated program with numerous specialist lectures on the history and technology of photography. In 1903, the "First International Exhibition for Artistic Portrait Photography" was held in the town hall, at which renowned professional photographers from Germany and abroad presented their work. Among them were the photographers Renger-Patzsch from Dresden, Steichen and Stieglitz from New York, the young Basel photographer Maria Bernoulli, who later became Hermann Hesse's first wife, as well as Adolf Elnain. 1904 was the founding year of the Fotografische Gesellschaft Wiesbaden, one of the oldest photography clubs in Germany - another indication of the importance that photography enjoyed in the spa town.

One of the most important Wiesbaden photographers at the turn of the century was Richard Strauch (1874-1964), who, like many of his colleagues, devoted himself primarily to portrait photography. In 1906, he opened his photography business in Bahnhofstrasse and documented countless visits by distinguished guests. The photographer Willi Rudolph (1898-1973) was a trained printer. He turned his hobby of photography into his profession during the Second World War and from then on worked as a freelance press photographer for Wiesbaden newspapers, advertising and industry. With his camera, he captured the devastation after the Allied air raid from February 2 to 3, 1945 for posterity. Ludwig Herbst (1912-2003) also worked for the newspapers; his photos of the visits to Wiesbaden by Queen Elizabeth II of England, the first German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and the American President John F. Kennedy are legendary.

In the post-war period, the city of Wiesbaden itself employed photographers to document important events in the city's politics as well as changes in the cityscape, such as the photographer Joachim Weber (*1927), who held this position for 30 years.

Photographic equipment was originally also offered for sale by the traveling photographers. This changed in 1884 when Johann Christian Tauber founded his "Versandhaus für Photographische Apparate und Drogerie Nassovia Medizinisches Versandhaus". Carl Besier opened his first photography business in 1912 and was soon able to expand; the company existed until 2016. Cameras were also produced in Wiesbaden.

Photography continues to be cultivated in Wiesbaden, among other things through the Wiesbadener Fototage (Wiesbaden Photography Days), which have provided a forum for local and foreign photographers at different locations every two years since 2002.