Portret van een onbekende man

This portrait of an unknown man was created by Johannes Baer in the late 19th century, using a photographic process. The albumen print, as it's known, was a popular technique at the time, involving coating paper with egg white to create a glossy surface, before being exposed to light through a negative. The sepia tones we see here are characteristic of the process. The materiality of this print – the paper, the albumen, the chemical developers – speaks to the rise of industrial photography. While portraiture had previously been the domain of painting, photography offered a relatively quick and affordable alternative for a growing middle class. This image, therefore, is not just a record of a man's likeness, but also a document of social change, where new technologies democratized image-making, reflecting shifts in labor, class, and consumption during the period. It challenges traditional notions of art by finding beauty in an industrial mode of production.