Portret van een man met stropdas c. 1900

This is a portrait of a man with a tie, by Louis Devolder, made with photography. Photography changed portraiture forever. Before its invention, painted portraits were expensive, time-consuming status symbols. All of a sudden, nearly anyone could have their likeness captured – like this gentleman, well-dressed in his suit and tie. It’s a modest image, yet it speaks volumes. Photography was intimately tied up with industrial capitalism. The camera itself was a product of precision manufacturing, and the chemicals and paper needed to make photographic prints were also industrial outputs. And of course, all those suits and ties, perfectly capturing the sitter’s social standing, were products of the garment industry. It's easy to overlook these things when looking at an old photograph, but understanding the materials and processes involved gives us a richer sense of what this seemingly simple image really means.