Portret van een meisje 1855 - 1880

This is a photograph by Enrique Godinez, taken sometime between 1825 and 1875, using the wet collodion process. Think about what’s involved: a glass plate meticulously coated with chemicals, exposed while still wet, then developed immediately. The process demanded skill and speed, a far cry from our instantaneous digital images. The resulting sepia tones and soft focus give the portrait its distinctive, ethereal quality. It’s a world away from the sharp precision we expect today. This wasn’t just about capturing a likeness, it was about a performance: the sitter posed rigidly, the photographer wrestling with chemistry, and the final print a testament to a complex, alchemical process. What you see here is a material record of its time, deeply enmeshed with the era's technological and social conditions. It serves as a reminder that even the most seemingly straightforward image is the product of specific skills, materials, and choices.