Album met honderd negatieven 1890 - 1920

This is a photograph of an album for photographic negatives, produced in Britain by Kodak. Though we don’t know when exactly it was made, the album’s very existence speaks to the democratization of photography in the 20th century. Before Kodak, photography was the domain of specialists. George Eastman's innovation was to make photography simple and accessible, famously declaring, "You press the button, we do the rest." This album, designed to hold and protect those negatives, points to a growing class of amateur photographers. Consider the social implications: families documenting their lives, travelers capturing exotic locales, and ordinary people recording their own histories. What stories do these negatives hold? What moments did people deem worthy of preservation? To truly understand this object, one might delve into Kodak's corporate history, exploring its marketing strategies and its impact on visual culture. We might also examine personal archives, seeking the stories hidden within these very negatives, and learn more about the public role of photography in shaping our collective memory.