Untitled 1849 - 1860

This photograph, now in the Art Institute of Chicago, was made using the wet collodion process, a technique which demanded meticulous preparation and timing. A glass plate would have been coated with light-sensitive chemicals right before the exposure, then developed immediately afterward. This explains the slightly uneven tones and soft focus, which we might now see as aesthetic qualities. But what I find fascinating here is the way the image captures a specific social milieu. Note the subjects' clothing: the children in top hats and formal suits, the women in layered dresses. These garments speak to the labor involved in textile production and tailoring, a vast industry that fueled the 19th-century economy. The very act of posing for a photograph, itself a relatively new technology, signals a certain level of affluence and leisure. The image becomes a document not just of individuals, but of a particular moment in the history of materials, making, and social class.