Groepsportret van vrouwen en mannen op straat 1920 - 1930

This silver gelatin print, made by Vereenigde Foto-bureaux Amsterdam, captures a group portrait on a street. Photography, like other reproductive media, transformed the way images were made, disseminated, and consumed. Here, the crisp monochrome aesthetic is typical of the era’s photographic technology. Each figure is sharply rendered, their clothes and expressions preserved. The material reality of photography, from the chemical process of developing the image to the final print, meant that every copy was a direct trace of the captured moment. Photography democratized portraiture, making it accessible beyond the elite. Studios like Vereenigde Foto-bureaux Amsterdam mass-produced images, capturing everyday life and making the technology an integral part of journalism and social documentation. The labour involved in photography—from setting up the shot to developing the print—speaks to broader shifts in labour and leisure during this period. By engaging with the industrial technology of photography, the studio was able to make the creation of images both accessible and widely available.