Portret van directeur Colsman 1924

Editor: Here we have a photograph, "Portret van directeur Colsman" made in 1924. It's a gelatin silver print. I’m struck by how…staged it feels. How would you read this photograph? Curator: Considering this image through a materialist lens, I’m drawn to the gelatin silver process itself. The photographic process becomes central. It’s not just about representation, but the labor and materials required to create this seemingly straightforward portrait of Colsman. Think about the industrial production behind photographic materials at this time. What industries were developing alongside photography? Editor: The silver has to come from somewhere. Was that something new in the '20s? Curator: Exactly. This relates to silver mining and processing which involved a global network of resources and often exploited labor. This image thus stands as a nexus of extraction, chemical processes, and the skilled labor of the photographer to capture the likeness of this Director. The photographic paper itself, consider the trees pulped for it! How does that change your perception of it? Editor: It's easy to forget the photograph itself is an object created using different methods and that photography changed industries forever. Suddenly it feels less posed, and more constructed. Curator: And who had access to these emerging technologies? Who benefited? What other industrial processes mirror or inform its production? Editor: I'm seeing this photograph completely differently now, less as a portrait and more as a record of industry and access in the 1920s. Thank you. Curator: And the ways the consumption of images and materials continues to impact our lives!