Portret van Guurtje van Leijden c. 1895 - 1900

This is a portrait of Guurtje van Leijden by Coenraad Jacob Snooij, a small photograph carefully mounted in an album. What I find interesting here is the contrast between the photographic process, which was becoming increasingly industrialized at this time, and the more intimate, handcrafted nature of the album itself. The photograph, likely a silver gelatin print, would have been produced through a relatively standardized chemical process, a far cry from traditional portraiture in paint or sculpture. Yet, the act of placing it within a leather-bound album, complete with its carefully tooled border, speaks to a desire to preserve individuality, to hold onto a sense of personal history within an increasingly mechanized world. You might even say that the relative ease of photographic production made this preservation of a likeness more available to the masses, to a broader range of social classes than ever before. Ultimately, this portrait reminds us that even the most seemingly straightforward images are shaped by the materials, the making, and the social context in which they are created.