Portret van een onbekende vrouw 1855 - 1885

Editor: Here we have "Portret van een onbekende vrouw," a gelatin-silver print, likely from between 1855 and 1885, by Erwin Hanfstaengl. It’s such a delicate image; what strikes me most is how the light catches the fabric of her dress. How would you interpret this photograph? Curator: Well, focusing on materiality, consider the rise of photography in the mid-19th century. A gelatin-silver print like this democratized portraiture. Oil painting was previously the domain of the wealthy, while photography offered a relatively cheaper and faster process. We can think of it in terms of consumption. How did the availability of this technology shift class structures and notions of artistic labour? Editor: That's interesting. So, instead of focusing on the identity of the sitter, we're looking at how photography itself altered society and how people could project themselves to others? Curator: Precisely. Consider the role of studios like Hanfstaengl's. They were factories of image production, participating in the economy of representation. Photography creates labor and changes access; it alters what it means to see and be seen, shifting it into a purchasable object. And what of the labor required to create that fashionable silhouette the woman wears? These factors are the true subjects of this piece. Editor: So, instead of wondering *who* she is, we consider how she, and countless others, participated in a new kind of visual culture. Curator: Exactly. And how the means of production and circulation shaped our understanding of identity itself. What do you make of it now? Editor: I hadn't considered the impact of photography being a commodity like that before. It makes me rethink all the portraits from that time. Curator: And it's a perspective that can open new avenues of exploration when we confront artwork.