Portret van Prof. Dr. Jan van Geuns c. 1863 - 1866

This is a photographic portrait of Professor Jan van Geuns, made in the late 19th century by the Abdullah Frères, a studio based in Istanbul with a wide international clientele. The photograph’s small size suggests that it was made as a carte-de-visite, to be traded among friends and acquaintances. Photography in the 19th century occupied an interesting place in relation to social status. In some ways, photographic portraits democratized representation: suddenly, it was no longer necessary to commission an expensive painted portrait in order to have your likeness circulated among your peers. But at the same time, this also became a new marker of middle-class status, a way of demonstrating that you had the financial and social capital to participate in this new visual economy. To understand this image more fully, we might turn to resources that tell us more about the history of photography, the changing status of the middle class, and the histories of medicine and education that defined van Geuns’ career.