Drie portretten van mensen die lijden aan manieën before 1876

This page shows three portraits, made by J. Valette, using a photographic process. The images depict people suffering from mania, a condition then poorly understood. Photography in this period was a labour-intensive craft, demanding expertise in chemistry and optics. The collodion process, likely used here, involved coating a glass plate with light-sensitive chemicals, exposing it in the camera, and then developing it immediately. This had to be done quickly, before the plate dried. The tonal range in these portraits is striking, a result of careful manipulation in the darkroom. Each print required meticulous work, transforming human subjects into carefully composed images. This labor, largely invisible to us now, was a crucial aspect of early photography, and reminds us that even seemingly "objective" images are the product of skilled making.