Portret van een zittende man met bakkebaard 1855 - 1870

This is a photograph made by W. Oakeshott, depicting a seated man with sideburns. The image’s materiality offers insight into the subject's social status, and the labour involved in producing photographs in the 19th century. The daguerreotype process, which dominated early photography, was painstaking and expensive, requiring specialized equipment and chemical expertise. This meant that having one’s portrait taken was a luxury affordable only to the middle and upper classes, like this gentleman in a well-tailored suit, captured in a carefully staged pose. What you can't see in the image is the labour involved, from the photographer’s technical skill to the miners who extracted the silver from the earth, to the factory workers who manufactured the photographic plates and the other components of the photographic process. Recognizing these elements helps us understand the photograph as a cultural artifact, reflecting the social and economic dynamics of its time. It challenges the traditional view of photography as simply a transparent window onto reality.