[Mathias Häusermann, Marie Antoine, Elise Häusermann, and Pepe Wöss] 1850s - 1860s

Editor: So this is a daguerreotype from the 1850s or 60s of Mathias Häusermann, Marie Antoine, Elise Häusermann, and Pepe Wöss, currently at the Met. It's an unusual portrait, a bit staged, yet somehow intimate. What strikes you most about it? Curator: I am particularly drawn to how the very act of staging becomes part of the portrait’s story. The careful arrangement of the figures tells us about the performative aspects of social class and the conscious construction of identity for public consumption during this period. Consider the disruptive presence of Mathias with his hat and cigar. Editor: Yes! He stands out so much in that group. What would his cigar tell us about the public role of art here? Curator: The cigar points toward the emergent public sphere of the mid-19th century where leisure and bourgeois identity were being actively shaped. Group portraits, disseminated through photography, also influenced expectations of what families wanted to project in those times. Are they upholding or challenging those expectations here, would you say? Editor: Hmm... I initially saw them as a family, just captured by the lens, but considering their clothes and posture it shows that family portraits were not that simple, or natural, as they are often considered today. Curator: Exactly. This tension is key to understanding the social function of such images then. It is a perfect example of the early intersection between art, technology, and the construction of social narratives. Editor: This really opens my eyes to how staged even seemingly candid early photographs really were. It is interesting how little aspects changed how it should be perceived. Curator: Precisely! It is like looking through a window into the values of the time, framed by the very technology used to create the view.