Portret van Johannes van Zijll de Jong in legeruniform 1930 - 1935

This is a vintage photograph, of unknown date, portraying Johannes van Zijll de Jong in his military uniform. Though unsigned, it's a fascinating document of its time, created using photographic processes that were revolutionary in their day. What we see here is the result of a complex chemical reaction, light hitting a treated surface to create an image, and printed on paper. The tones of the photograph, from light grays to deep blacks, show the relative amount of light reflected by the subject onto the photographic plate. Photography in this era represented a new form of documentation, but also a new kind of labor. It took darkroom technicians and printers to finalize an image after the photographer had taken the shot. The reproducibility inherent in the medium democratized portraiture, though it simultaneously transformed the very nature of image-making and its relationship to both labor and the art world. This portrait, therefore, is more than just a record; it’s a testament to the evolving intersection of technology, labor, and representation in visual culture.