Portret van een onbekende man, zittend aan een bureau 1864 - 1896

Kasparus Karsen made this portrait of an unknown man, using photography, in Amsterdam sometime in the mid-19th century. Photography was still a relatively new medium, having been around for less than 50 years at this point, but it was already changing the landscape of portraiture, and who got to have their image captured. No longer was it just the wealthy who could afford to sit for a painted portrait, photography democratized image making. The process involved a complex series of chemical reactions on light-sensitive materials to capture an image. The resulting photograph, often sepia-toned, had a unique texture and depth, and of course, presented a direct trace of reality. Consider the social impact of this new technology. While photography opened up image-making to a wider audience, the labor behind the camera remained specialized, and it influenced the perception of the self, and representation of sitters and their status.