Portret van een vrouw 1883 - 1910

Editor: This is Carl Emil Møgle's "Portrait of a Woman," likely taken sometime between 1883 and 1910. It's a gelatin silver print, and there's something quite striking about its directness. What stands out to you when you look at this image? Curator: Well, considering the materials, a gelatin silver print points us towards a specific industrial and chemical process of image-making. The glass plate negative, the silver halides, the gelatin emulsion...these aren’t neutral choices. They dictate the tonal range, the surface texture, the very *reproducibility* of this image. How do you think that industrial context affected portraiture at the time? Editor: That's fascinating, I hadn't thought about that. Maybe it shifted the perception of portraiture from being something exclusively for the wealthy elite who could commission painted portraits, to something more accessible? Curator: Precisely! Consider the sitter's garments as well, the lace collar, the buttoned jacket. The choice and means of construction reflect Victorian-era sartorial codes and expectations of domestic labor, contrasting between the visible display of refined fashion and potentially, her engagement with its production and consumption. Do you find that evident here? Editor: Yes, absolutely! The very act of mass production is so key here, isn’t it? I am seeing the intersection of social class and industrial processes right now. Curator: Exactly! We’ve been so conditioned to regard photographs, and even portraits, as seemingly straightforward representations of reality. Yet the selection of photographic materials and the fashion itself reveal underlying assumptions about class, labor and how they affect artistic media and representation. Editor: That's a perspective I hadn't fully considered. I will definitely view other images of that era through a new lens! Thank you!