Portret van een man met snor en baard 1860 - 1900

This portrait of a moustached and bearded man was made by Selle & Kuntze using photographic techniques. Photography in this era was a chemical process, a skilled trade with a complicated material basis. The sepia tone, created by the use of silver salts, lends the portrait a sense of gravitas. The subject looks directly at us, as if to ask us to take him seriously. The photograph's small size speaks to its function as a personal memento, yet it also reflects the industrialization of portraiture at the time. Photography studios, like Selle & Kuntze, were businesses that mass-produced images for a growing middle class eager to participate in modern forms of self-representation. Photography, therefore, democratized image-making in a way previously unimagined. By considering the material and social context of this photograph, we can appreciate how it blurred the lines between art, craft, and commerce, and how it reflects the changing landscape of identity and representation in the modern era.