Portret van een oude Indonesische man 1857 - 1880

This photographic print of an elderly Indonesian man was created by Woodbury & Page, though the precise date is unknown. The photograph is a layered object. The photographic emulsion itself would have been created through a careful chemical process, and printed on paper. The resulting print is then mounted on card, a cheap but effective way of giving the image heft and a sense of value. But look closer, and you’ll see that these industrial materials are only the beginning of the story. The man’s clothing – the cut of his jacket, the woven textile draped in his lap – tells us something about his status and the cultural traditions of his time. We might also consider the labor involved in posing for such a portrait, a formal and deliberate act that contrasts with the mass production of the photograph itself. Thinking about these layers – material, process, social context – allows us to appreciate the photograph as more than just a historical document, but as a complex object made in a particular time and place.