Portrait Photo of Emil Rathenau, Founder of Aeg, Seated, Facing Left. Original Size 16.3×22.5 cm. 1915

This is a portrait photograph of Emil Rathenau, founder of AEG, made by Nicola Perscheid. Though we don't have a date, we can consider it a product of the early 20th century. Perscheid worked with light and shadow to capture the essence of Rathenau, whose company was at the forefront of Germany's industrial revolution. Through his lens, Perscheid captured the texture and details of the sitter's suit, as well as the soft glow of his skin. You can see the gravitas in his facial expression, conveying a sense of authority and intellectual power. While photography might be considered a 'fine art' today, it was intertwined with processes of mass production and consumption. The glass plate negatives and photographic paper were, like AEG's electrical products, commodities manufactured on an industrial scale. This portrait reminds us that even artistic creation is embedded in a larger landscape of labor, politics, and economics, which, through its materiality, ultimately shaped the final image.