Portret van Yvonne Lévy before 1892

Editor: This is Nadar’s “Portrait of Yvonne L\u00e9vy”, created before 1892. It’s an albumen print, presented within a bound volume. I find the way the image sits within the book format intriguing. What stands out to you most about it? Curator: It's precisely the means of production we must consider. This isn’t merely a portrait; it's an albumen print – a photographic process that relied on coating paper with egg white to create a receptive surface for the image. Think about that labor: the industrial scaling needed to fix people's portraits. It tells us about the rise of photography as both art and commodity. Editor: So, the choice of albumen print tells us about more than just aesthetic preferences? Curator: Exactly! And consider the presentation within the book. The binding, the paper stock – these were conscious choices, indicative of how photography was being legitimized as a collectible, bound alongside other forms of knowledge and visual culture. Who was Yvonne Levy and what kind of relationship did she have with the artist? Her place in that society had an impact in that legitimisation of photography too. Editor: That’s interesting. I was focusing more on her expression, but now I see how the materials and context shift the meaning. The book itself becomes part of the artwork. Curator: Precisely! How photography moved from being this brand new disruptive thing to something solid enough to get binded is pretty impressive. Think of it: labor, materials, industrial scaling, societal integration. The image and how its made takes on its own unique narrative and impact in the cultural narrative. Editor: I see. So, by examining the materials and production, we gain a much richer understanding. Thanks for pointing out a different way to think about how photographs operated within the broader culture of the time!