Twintig portretten van Émilie Mily Meyer en Ève Lavallière before 1892

Curator: Oh, my! What an odd but compelling sight. It feels like looking through someone's dream journal. So many faces. Editor: This is "Twintig portretten van Émilie Mily Meyer en Ève Lavallière," taken by Nadar. These albumen prints, compiled onto paper before 1892, offer us a fascinating peek into the photographic practices of the time. Curator: Albumen prints…it sounds so alchemical! Tell me, these twenty portraits—all of the same women, I presume? They're lined up almost like botanical specimens, but far more captivating. A beautiful pair, they feel so captured by the moment...a feeling of stillness pervades. Editor: Indeed. It's a study of two actresses of the era. Nadar, known for his portraiture of Parisian personalities, captures something beyond mere likeness here. Note how class is expressed and, perhaps, troubled: acting offered paths toward upward mobility but did not guarantee stable class status or social capital. Curator: Troubled... Yes. I see what you mean. There's a hint of… melancholy, maybe, lurking behind the constructed image. And the arrangement – so grid-like and formal against that free-flowing script on the facing page. Why include that odd page in the journal, though? Is it some sort of diagram, maybe something to do with Nadar's studio or photography techniques? It looks vaguely like architectural drafting to me. Editor: It's intriguing, isn't it? Perhaps the diagram hints at the machinery behind representation. Consider, Nadar also experimented with aerial photography – maybe the sketch illustrates equipment related to that. And consider that posing itself was work, particularly so for women as well as working-class and immigrant artists and models. So much is happening behind and in front of the camera! Curator: It is so beautiful. In this one snapshot of the page, there are little moments in time with each woman—the woman behind the performance; they seem frozen. One catches you staring; another averts her gaze. Editor: Precisely. Nadar’s portraits allow us to reflect on how we encounter and interpret visages that now flicker at the edge of legibility in history. Curator: Like peering into a sepia-toned mirror... very evocative, this assemblage of captured instants! I shall look more closely at these faces from now on and remember those gazes that both challenge and beguile.