Portret van een student met bakkebaarden in Oxford 1860 - 1861

This is a photographic portrait of an Oxford student with sideburns, made by J. Bagnall Evans. The photographic process is critical here. Photography in this era involved a complex interplay of chemistry and optics. Early photographic prints, like this one, were not simply snapped; they were the result of painstaking darkroom work, mixing emulsions, and carefully controlling exposure times. The sepia tone itself speaks to the history of photographic materials. The very act of creating such an image was relatively exclusive, and the production of a portrait was about the solidification of social status. The subject’s garments and stylish sideburns, combined with the very act of commissioning a photograph, all speak to a certain level of social standing. It's important to remember that every photograph is a made thing, a result of human labor and material processes. This challenges the idea of photography as a purely objective medium, and invites us to consider the social and economic context in which images are produced.