Untitled (portrait of parents and three sons) 1915

Editor: Here we have an untitled photographic print by Hamblin Studio of a family, a mother and father with their three sons. The negative effect is striking. How might we interpret this image? Curator: Consider the materiality. It’s a photographic negative. This isn’t the final product, but a step in a process. What does this reveal about the labour involved in producing family portraits at the time? Editor: So, you are saying the image itself is a raw material, not yet a finished product, and that tells us something about photographic practices? Curator: Precisely! And how the Hamblin Studio, as a commercial enterprise, fits into the wider economy of image production and consumption. Editor: That gives me a new way of seeing it, less about the people, more about the making. Curator: Indeed, shifting the focus to the material conditions can offer new insights.