Portret van een jonge man met stropdas 1870

Richard Boning captured this portrait of a young man with a tie, using photography, sometime in the 19th century. This image offers a glimpse into the construction of masculinity during that era. The young man’s attire, a suit and tie, speaks to the formal expectations of middle-class men. Yet, the soft focus of the photograph and the subject's somewhat wistful gaze hint at the tensions between social expectations and individual expression. Consider how portraiture, especially photography, was becoming a tool for identity construction. This photograph can be seen as a negotiation between the subject’s self-perception and the photographer’s artistic vision, against the backdrop of evolving social norms. It is a quiet exploration of what it meant to be a man in the 1800s.