Portret van een onbekende man 1860 - 1880

Curator: Hmm, sepia dreams. It's all so proper, the very picture of mid-19th-century bourgeoisie—stiff collar and all. Editor: Right, we're looking at a photograph, a "Portret van een onbekende man," or Portrait of an Unknown Man, made sometime between 1860 and 1880. It's an albumen or gelatin silver print, common for studio portraiture at the time. Curator: Albumen, eggs! To think this serious gentleman's face is captured with the help of egg whites! Isn’t that delightful? Seriously, though, he looks deeply troubled, almost…melancholy. The set of his jaw, the downward gaze... he's carrying a weight. Editor: That's typical of the era, though. Studio photography was a formal, somewhat solemn occasion. Consider the social context: photography was becoming more accessible, but it was still a deliberate act, a claim to permanence. These portraits were often intended for posterity, projecting a certain social status. Curator: Well, even allowing for that formality, there’s a vulnerable quality in his eyes. See how the light catches just there? It humanizes him, breaks through that shell of respectability. He's trying so hard to be 'somebody', and yet the camera snatches a glimpse of the soul underneath. I find it almost unbearably poignant. Editor: And the lack of specific identity enhances that, right? He stands in for so many – the aspiring middle class, caught in the industrial shift, yearning for recognition. It’s a carefully constructed image intended for a specific audience and speaks to social mobility through the medium of photography. Curator: Perhaps he was off to propose to his love. All dressed up. Head full of doubt. I wonder if his picture hangs on someone's mantelpiece, a faded memory, and who might he have been to someone, now that only he is an 'unknown man'. Editor: It really is a poignant commentary, unintentionally or not, on the transient nature of identity and social aspirations. Makes you wonder who else history forgets to remember. Curator: Exactly! It also highlights just how accessible photographic portraiture became at that time. Anyway, there goes another one for the book, I am very grateful we saw this one together. Editor: Same. Thanks for your perspective.