Portret van twee meisjes 1868 - 1876

This portrait of two girls was captured by Eugene Guérin using photographic methods common in the late 19th century. Photography in this era was a painstaking, alchemical process. Glass plates were coated with light-sensitive emulsion, exposed in the camera, and then developed using chemical baths, a real departure from traditional art materials and processes. The sepia tones and soft focus give the image a dreamlike quality, a direct result of the materials' inherent qualities. The sitters, presumably from a well-to-do family, are stiffly posed, reflecting the long exposure times required. The textures of their clothing, the ornate wallpaper, and the decorated chair, though somewhat blurred, hint at the social context of bourgeois domesticity. While not "handmade" in the traditional sense, early photography required considerable skill and technical knowledge, and its rise had a huge impact on the labor of visual representation, as this new medium democratized portraiture like never before. By understanding these processes, we appreciate how photography challenged and expanded the definition of art itself.