Portret van een man met bakkebaarden en hoge hoed 1863 - 1900

Johan Christiaan Reesinck created this small portrait of a man with sideburns and a top hat sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. The image itself speaks to the rigid social structures of the time. Dress, posture and props speak to a certain class, a desire to project respectability. The man’s direct gaze, however, hints at the negotiation between individual identity and social expectation that so many faced during this era. It’s easy to read this as a straightforward depiction, but the very act of posing for a photograph at that time was a statement. The photo offers a window into a world where identity was carefully constructed and performed, and where photography itself played a role in shaping those performances. It’s a reminder that every image, no matter how simple it seems, is laden with cultural meaning.