Portret van een onbekend meisje bij een hek 1884 - 1902

This small portrait of an unknown girl was made using a photographic process sometime in the late 19th century by Eugène Fontaine in Rouen, France. Photography in this era was rapidly evolving from a craft-based practice to an industrial one, and this image reflects that transition. Consider the stiff pose, the muted tones and the formal composition: all techniques employed to capture a likeness with the limited resources available. Light-sensitive materials were expensive, and the development process itself was highly specialized, so a photograph like this would have been a luxury. Photographers like Fontaine operated small studios to provide a service for a growing middle class who wanted to participate in the culture of image-making. He relied on skilled handwork and industrial methods to offer something that would have been unavailable just a few decades prior. These images stand as artifacts of a society rapidly changing due to new technologies and creative visionaries.