Familie voor een huis c. 1865 - 1900

This is a photographic negative, made by Laurens Lodewijk Kleijn, likely dating to the late 19th century. As a negative, it is not the final product, but an intermediary step in the creation of a photograph. The image shows a family gathered in front of a house. What's interesting is that the house itself is a product of labor and materials: stone for the foundation, timber for the structure, glass for the windows. Each of these elements represents a chain of extraction, production, and construction. The house symbolizes security and prosperity, yet it also embodies the culmination of countless hours of work, from quarrying stone to felling trees. Photography itself was a relatively new technology at the time this picture was taken, a product of industrial advances in chemistry and manufacturing. It democratized portraiture, making it accessible to a wider segment of society, yet its production and consumption were still tied to broader economic forces. By focusing on these material and social aspects, we can see that this simple image tells a much richer story about labor, class, and the changing landscape of 19th-century society.