Portret van drie vrouwen 1857 - 1880

This is Woodbury & Page’s small albumen print, "Portret van drie vrouwen," housed here at the Rijksmuseum. The photograph presents three women seated in a row, their identical poses creating a rigid structure. The composition is strikingly symmetrical. The vertical lines of their bodies are balanced by the horizontal sweep of the patterned rug beneath them. The limited tonal range of the sepia print flattens the figures. The subjects are presented in a structured, almost clinical manner, which reduces the women to objects of ethnographic study rather than acknowledging their individuality. This approach speaks to broader colonial-era practices of categorizing and commodifying the ‘exotic.’ In this photograph, the formal arrangement and restricted palette serve to reinforce the power dynamics inherent in colonial representation. The women’s identities are distilled into a visual shorthand, turning the complexities of culture and personhood into a fixed, two-dimensional image.