Portret van twee onbekende Sri Lankanen 1862 - 1903

This albumen print, made by W.L.H. Skeen & Co., portrays two unidentified Sri Lankan men. The chemical process used to make this photograph would have been considered state-of-the-art at the time. It was part of a much wider industrialization of image-making, which democratized portraiture, making it accessible to a broader public. The men in the portrait are formally posed, almost like a painting, but the new medium allowed for a stark realism, recording every detail of their faces, clothing, and the wooden backdrop. Look closely, and you can see the textures of the fabrics they are wearing. Their carefully chosen garments reflect not only personal style, but also cultural identity and, potentially, social status. Photography, with its promise of objective truth, also became a tool for constructing and disseminating ideas about race, class, and culture, shaping perceptions both within Sri Lanka and abroad. This challenges the Western definition of ‘fine art’.