Gezicht op een strand before 1898

This tiny photograph of a beach scene by L. Schwere was included in a book. Without a date or further information, one might ask, what is its purpose? It’s likely that the photograph was intended as an example of the techniques discussed in the text. We can see that the image is brown-toned rather than grayscale. This would indicate that it was printed using an alternative photographic process such as sepia toning or perhaps a different printing method altogether. This photograph and text are an artifact of a time when photography was still new and techniques were being explored and refined. Photography emerged alongside a set of institutions – journals, societies, and schools – that formalized the experimental knowledge needed to master the medium. Examining the journals and manuals of the time alongside the images themselves can tell us a great deal about the early history of photography.