Groepsportret van een gezelschap in historische kostuums before 1894

Hendrik Herman van den Berg made this silver gelatin print, depicting a group portrait in historic costumes, sometime in the early twentieth century. The process of photographic printing involves coating paper with light-sensitive chemicals, and then exposing it to light through a negative. The subtle tonal range and relatively sharp detail we see here depend on the quality of both the negative and the printing process. This was still a relatively novel technology at the time, and as the handwritten note at the bottom states, the picture was taken 'by magnesium light'. Photography democratized portraiture, making images available to a wider social spectrum, but it also demanded new forms of labor in the production of materials and the operation of studios. The aesthetic we appreciate in this photograph, from the composition to the lighting, emerges directly from these conditions of production. As much as the artistic intent, the materials and making processes are crucial to our understanding of this artwork.