Portret van August Allebé 1910 - 1927

Editor: Here we have "Portrait of August Allebé" a gelatin-silver print, made sometime between 1910 and 1927. It's quite a formal portrait, very serious. I wonder, looking at the processes used to make this photograph, what strikes you the most? Curator: I’m particularly drawn to the gelatin-silver print method itself. Think about the labor involved – the meticulous preparation of the photographic plates, the precise timing of the exposure and development. This wasn't just about capturing an image; it was a chemical process controlled by human hands. Consider also, how the reproducibility inherent in the photographic medium was transforming ideas about art and portraiture at the time. Editor: So, you see value not just in the image, but also in understanding the actual making? Curator: Precisely. This particular method democratized portraiture to a degree. Photography became increasingly accessible, changing the traditional patronage system of painted portraits and perhaps giving people of various classes greater opportunities to be captured in visual media. What can you discern about August Allebé’s class? What’s indicated about wealth or access through the material elements, his suit, the studio portrait, etc.? Editor: Good point! I hadn’t thought of it that way. It highlights the subject’s, Allebé's, participation in that rising middle class and access to cultural tools, but also Koene & Büttinghausen’s studio’s economic status too. Curator: And it prompts us to think about how photography, even in its “artistic” applications, was deeply interwoven with the industrial processes and consumer culture of the early 20th century. What labor goes unacknowledged in our encounter with the image here? Editor: That's given me a completely fresh way to look at it. I now have many more things to consider. Curator: Exactly, considering artmaking from production to the social meaning it produces!