Portret van Stefanie van België 1880 - 1890

This photograph of Stephanie of Belgium was created by Würthle & Spinnhirn, using the wet collodion process, a popular method in the 19th century. The process involved coating a glass plate with light-sensitive chemicals, exposing it in a camera, and then developing it immediately. It was a demanding, highly skilled craft. The resulting image, printed on albumen paper, has a distinctive soft quality, which is in part due to the manual processes involved. The ambrotype's tones range from warm sepia to cool grays, with the subject's dark dress contrasting against a muted background, thus highlighting the sitter's elegance and composure, characteristic of aristocratic portraiture of the time. Photography in this period was not just a technological advancement but a social phenomenon, democratizing portraiture while simultaneously reinforcing social hierarchies. While it made images more accessible, the labor-intensive methods and specialized skills involved meant that photography, like other forms of craft, still carried significant cultural weight.