Portret van een man met snor 1896

This is a portrait of a man with a mustache, likely made in a photography studio sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. The photograph itself is modest, but it's housed within an elaborate frame. Notice the decorative brass elements and the layered construction. These kinds of presentation formats were a popular way of domesticating the then-new technology of photography. You could think of the frame as an attempt to ennoble the photographic print. To bring it into line with more established art forms like painting and sculpture. Consider, too, that this object almost certainly comes from an industrial context. Photography was rapidly becoming an industry, and while posing for a portrait might have seemed special, the process was increasingly standardized. The man in the picture might have felt like he was commissioning a unique artwork, but he was also participating in a burgeoning culture of mass production. Recognizing this helps us to dissolve the traditional boundary between fine art and popular culture.