Portret van een onbekende man in uniform 1894

Editor: Here we have a photograph from 1894, "Portret van een onbekende man in uniform," made with an albumen print by Charles Odinot. The sepia tones create this formal atmosphere, but what I find particularly compelling are the layers of embellishment in his military uniform. What are your thoughts about this piece? Curator: What interests me are the materials used in both the man's uniform and the photographic process itself. Albumen prints, popular then, involved coating paper with egg whites, a seemingly domestic material used to capture a soldier, perhaps representing the might of a nation. Think about the labor involved. Who made his uniform, stitch by stitch? Who collected and prepared the albumen? Editor: That’s a perspective I hadn’t considered. I was mostly drawn to the visual impact. But thinking about labor makes me wonder about the economics involved, from the materials to the artist's practice of photography. Curator: Exactly! The image is more than just a portrait; it's an artifact loaded with socio-economic information. How readily available was photography to different classes? How did the cost of a uniform reflect power structures? Look at the way the photographer, Odinot, carefully printed their studio information on the final product. Editor: So by focusing on the albumen print process, and even the creation of the uniform, you're able to look at this artwork beyond just its aesthetic or artistic merit? Curator: Precisely. We start questioning not only what we see, but also how it came to be, and what the making reveals. Editor: That gives me a new appreciation for understanding all that's behind an artwork, not just the face of the artwork. Curator: I find myself more intrigued by the journey of materials, labor, and consumption in historical depictions after this.