Portret van een onbekende man en een onbekende vrouw 1870 - 1878

Curator: We are looking at an albumen print by Jan Breebaard, dating from somewhere between 1870 and 1878. It's titled "Portrait of an Unknown Man and Unknown Woman." Editor: Austere. That's the first word that comes to mind. A very carefully constructed image, yet profoundly… stiff. The color palette is almost entirely monochromatic, emphasizing textures of fabric. Curator: Indeed. Breebaard meticulously uses tonal variation within this brown scale to create visual separation between figures and the background. The backdrop itself is relatively sparse. But consider the subtle gradation of light; notice how the artist directs your eye through specific use of shadow and illumination on their faces and clothes. Editor: Which speaks to the formal conventions of the time – posing and clothing as status display, especially with photographic practices so enmeshed within class structures. We might think of the labor involved, too—of the subjects holding their poses for the duration, the careful alchemy of creating these images. This material fragility is now archival endurance. Curator: The composition achieves a powerful stasis. The placement of the man’s hand, resting protectively upon the woman's shoulder, signifies the social positioning of men in that era, as well. His stance indicates dominion while her seated placement communicates submission. Editor: But what else does that gesture communicate? Comfort? Possession? Those stiff poses say so much, perhaps more about the process than any inner lives; a constructed reality for the emerging middle class. Were these clothes newly purchased for the photo? How did these sartorial constraints dictate their sense of self? Curator: We see the structural forces subtly manifested. Photography provides us a valuable social mirror—sometimes distorted and occasionally romantic, however useful in analyzing structure and symbolism. Editor: And by focusing on the tangible realities of making and reception we expose not just the aesthetics, however intentional. Rather the complex social relations these images reveal. Food for thought.