Portret van een Duitse dienstplichtige militair c. 1890 - 1910

This cabinet card, likely created in the late 19th or early 20th century by Carl Hecking, is a photographic print, embellished with collage and possibly hand-painted touches. The subject is a conscripted German soldier, memorializing his service. Note the elaborate presentation, combining a portrait with vignettes of military life and patriotic symbols. The photographic process itself, while becoming increasingly industrialized, still required skilled labor to produce the initial image, develop the print, and then add the hand-applied color and composite imagery. The materiality of this object, with its layers of paper, photographic emulsion, and added pigment, speaks to the intersection of mass production and individual expression. The card format, designed for display and exchange, suggests a system of social relations underpinned by duty, militarism, and national identity. Ultimately, this seemingly straightforward portrait reveals a complex web of cultural values, labor practices, and technologies, reminding us that even the simplest image is a product of its time, place, and means of production.