The Madame B Album 1870

Editor: This is "The Madame B Album," created in 1870, now housed at the Art Institute of Chicago. It seems to be an arrangement of albumen prints, perhaps with colored pencil accents. The overall composition feels very formal, almost like a family tree… What can you tell me about this piece? Curator: What immediately strikes me is how this album reflects the performance of identity within 19th-century bourgeois French society. Consider the photographic medium itself—photography provided a 'modern' means for families to document themselves. Albums like this were carefully curated projects, shaping and cementing social standing through a carefully chosen collection of portraits, almost like social media of the time. Editor: That's fascinating! So it’s about image construction and social presentation? Curator: Precisely. The placement of each portrait, the inscription below them if there are any... they are all decisions made within the constraints of societal expectation and personal desires. We also have to acknowledge that photographic studios were businesses. They served the desires of a growing middle class keen on self-representation, a world captured in Proust's writings for instance. What effect do you think the framing of each smaller picture creates on the viewing of the whole work? Editor: The way the central picture becomes the focus of attention does create a focal point and, for me, highlights the way this page tells a particular narrative that Madame B wanted to construct for her family history. Curator: Precisely! Perhaps this arrangement suggests relationships or hierarchy; further research might reveal family connections and the intent behind those selections and careful arrangements. It prompts us to reflect on the broader implications of photographic representation during this era. Editor: It’s like a material embodiment of social aspiration! Thanks, I've never considered family photos this way. Curator: It’s been my pleasure! It really underlines the political undertones behind imagery and presentation, doesn't it?