[Meyer George von Bremen] 1860s

This small photograph of Meyer George von Bremen was made by Heinrich Graf in Berlin using the wet collodion process. A thin layer of light-sensitive emulsion was applied to a glass plate immediately before exposure. It’s a technique that produced a sharp image but required speed and expertise. The resulting print, like this one, would have captured incredible detail, but often shows imperfections from the developing process. Consider the labor involved; not just the photographer’s skill, but also the subject’s time, sitting still. This was still a relatively new technology at the time. Photographs like this were luxury items, a marker of status and participation in modern society. Looking at this image, we are invited to consider photography not just as a form of art, but also as a product of complex social and economic forces. This makes us question the conventional boundaries between art, craft, and the wider world of material culture.