Portret van een zittende baby 1850 - 1900

This photographic portrait by Berger captures a seated baby, rendered in tones of sepia. Though seemingly simple, the image is a product of complex chemical and mechanical processes, involving light-sensitive emulsions, lenses, and printing techniques. The final print, mounted within a decorative album, speaks to the rise of photography as a form of mass production and consumption. This portrait would have required a collaboration between the photographer, the sitter, and the technologies of the time. The baby, likely from a middle-class family, is posed formally, a testament to the democratization of portraiture. In considering this image, it's important to recognize the ways in which photography both reflected and shaped social norms, capturing individual likeness but also reproducing broader cultural ideals around family, status, and identity. It bridges the handmade and the mechanical.