Portret van een onbekende man met een snor en een baard c. 1882s - 1892s

Carel Frederik Cordes made this small photograph of an unknown man in the Netherlands, sometime between the 1870s and the early 1900s. Studio portrait photography was a booming industry at this time, especially among the emerging middle class, which had the disposable income to spend on such things. Prior to this, painted portraits had been the preserve of the wealthy elite. The new medium democratized image making in some ways, even while the studios themselves followed certain well-worn conventions and styles. Consider the man’s neatly trimmed beard and moustache, his suit and tie: all signs of bourgeois respectability. How might this man have wanted to be seen by his peers? He must have paid for the sitting, so how might he have directed Cordes, the photographer, in staging this image? The answers to such questions are not always apparent, but it is through delving into the visual and social history of such works that their real significance begins to emerge.