Portret van een jonge vrouw 1880s

Benjamin Sanders captured this portrait of a young woman using the wet collodion process, a photographic technique popular in the mid-19th century. The process involved coating a glass plate with light-sensitive chemicals, exposing it in a camera, and then developing it immediately. This had to be done quickly, as the plate needed to remain wet throughout the entire procedure. The resulting image, known as an ambrotype, has a unique appearance, with subtle tonal variations and a slightly dreamy quality, all determined by the materials and the careful, painstaking labour of creating an image in this way. This particular photograph’s small size also speaks to its purpose, and it may have been kept as a memento, a tangible memory of a loved one. Considering the materials and processes involved gives us insight into not only the aesthetic qualities of the photograph but also its social context, reminding us of the labor-intensive nature of early photography and its role in shaping personal and cultural memory.