Portret van een jongen c. 1870 - 1900

Fernando Dessaur made this photograph, "Portret van een jongen", using the wet collodion process common in the mid-19th century. Looking at the portrait, the young subject, dressed in a vest, tie and bowler hat, appears to be mimicking the attire of the bourgeois class. Such aspirational portraiture mirrored the social mobility sought by many during the industrial era, where one's identity was increasingly shaped by socio-economic factors. What does it mean to see a child playing dress up in a way that signifies social climbing? The photograph captures a tension between the constructed identities of class and the lived experience of youth. How do historical images like this, so deeply embedded in their time, still speak to our contemporary understanding of identity and aspiration?