Portret van een man met snor en vlinderstrik 1874 - 1887

Editor: Here we have Albert Greiner’s “Portrait of a Man with Moustache and Bow Tie,” a gelatin silver print made sometime between 1874 and 1887. I’m immediately struck by how this everyday technology transformed portraiture. How do you see it? Curator: I’m interested in the materiality of this photograph as a commodity. Look at the production process, the chemical reactions, the skilled labor needed to create and develop it. Consider how the availability of gelatin silver prints democratized portraiture. Who was commissioning these portraits, and why? What kind of social ritual led to its creation? Editor: So you’re less focused on the artistic merit of the image itself and more on the social and economic forces surrounding its creation and consumption? Curator: Precisely. We can speculate on the sitter's social standing based on his attire and grooming. A portrait wasn't just a likeness; it was a signifier of class and aspiration. Consider also the frame; it adds another layer of class distinction that makes the photograph a bourgeois object, set apart for domestic display and for further future uses within familial economy. Editor: I never thought about photography this way. The process itself becomes a cultural commentary. What can you tell about it as an element? Curator: Look closely at the support: gelatin silver prints. Think about the labor to get it to people. Consider the shift in photographic techniques, and their relative accessibility, which facilitated the rise of the middle class. Photography then shifts social status that used to rely on only artistic abilities. Editor: This definitely offers a different lens through which to understand 19th-century portraiture. Now I can see the object itself as telling stories beyond the sitter's image. Curator: Absolutely! Focusing on materials and processes reveals so much about the society that produced this image. A society and technological boom that still has resonance with us.