[Studio Portrait: Man Holding Decorative Stick with Italian Flag, Naples] 1860s - 1870s

This small photograph was produced in Naples by Giorgio Conrad, sometime in the mid-19th century. It shows a man carrying a decorative stick, complete with beads, flowers, and a small Italian flag. What’s fascinating about this image is the collision of the ‘high’ and ‘low.’ Photography itself was a relatively new, and somewhat democratizing, medium at this time. It allowed for the mass production of images, at a lower cost than painting. The man seems to be a street vendor, or perhaps a performer. His ‘wares’ are handmade, and his hat and stick suggest a kind of folk aesthetic. The flag of Italy is proudly displayed, but it is juxtaposed with the more humble materials of the stick. It’s interesting to consider the labor involved in producing both the photograph, which was a new technology, and the decorative stick. This challenges our conventional art historical understanding of how creativity is tied to labor, politics, and consumption.