Portret van de derde echtgenoot van Isabel Wachenheimer Gideon Elon, met geblokte kraag, februari 1955 1955

This photographic portrait of Gideon Elon with a checkered collar was made anonymously in February 1955. Photographs like this one, small and easily reproduced, were part of the 20th century’s image economy. Inexpensive, and portable, photography became a popular medium, both for artists, and for ordinary people documenting their own lives. The processes used in photography, from the developing of the film, to the printing of the image, involve a combination of chemical, mechanical, and aesthetic judgments. Consider the qualities of light and shadow captured in this portrait, and the tonal range of the print, all of which were carefully calibrated by the photographer in the darkroom. This was also the era of Kodak, and other large manufacturers that brought photographic equipment to the masses, thus photography democratized portraiture. Once the purview of the wealthy, now ordinary people could procure images of themselves and their loved ones. In doing so, they contributed to a system of mass production and consumption, shaping our understanding of art, identity, and the circulation of images.