Portret van een onbekende vrouw in gestreepte jurk 1863 - 1875

Heinrich Steinhauer made this portrait of an unknown woman using albumen silver print. In the mid-19th century, photography democratized portraiture. While painting remained a practice of the wealthy, suddenly more people than ever before could access images of themselves and loved ones. But look closely, and you’ll see the traces of earlier artistic traditions here too. The setting is clearly a studio fabrication, replete with props and painted backdrops, which remind us that photography borrowed from established genres of portraiture and theater. Even the woman's dress, simple as it may appear, would have been made by someone. Consider, too, the labor involved in creating an albumen print, from mixing egg whites, coating paper, exposing the image, to finally mounting the print. This “simple” photograph speaks to the transformations of labor and class in the industrializing 19th century. By understanding these processes, we recognize photography's pivotal role in reshaping social representation and cultural memory.