Portret van een jongen, staand bij een stoel, aangeduid als Derk van der Wal 1866 - 1877

Curator: Here we have a photograph, dating from around 1866 to 1877, thought to be a portrait of Derk van der Wal by Benjamin van der Heide. Editor: My first thought is how much this looks like a stage play. The kid seems so posed against the painted background; even the chair feels like a prop. Curator: It's a genre painting through the relatively new medium of photography! We have to remember how disruptive photography was to portraiture. Mass production altered our social relationship to imagery, particularly around middle-class portraiture. Editor: True. And think of the labour involved. The production of these backdrops, for instance. And even the woven detail of that chair would have been carefully crafted; its presence tells us something about the family’s aspirations. Also, consider the materiality of the photo itself. The paper, the chemical process of the photographic development… Curator: Absolutely, and let's not forget the studio itself! Imagine the performance that went into getting a young child to pose like this. Consider how photography, even at this point, was establishing its own aesthetic norms – stiff posture, staged settings… a whole ritual surrounding image production. Editor: I also wonder about the kid’s clothing – quite utilitarian, but seemingly tailored. Did the photographer offer clothing or was that from the sitter’s personal belongings? Curator: An interesting point! The photograph flattens all this materiality into one image that obscures labor; instead, we can find meaning in the child’s class identity. It’s fascinating to think how such images codified ideal childhood appearances, especially the performance of childhood as social position. Editor: It does show how photography democratised portraiture… but that democratization came at a cost. So many labour inputs went into crafting these moments, for better or for worse. Curator: Absolutely, both image and artifact provide invaluable insights! Editor: Definitely an important object when thinking about the social and economic context of photography.