Portret van een vrouw met witte klederdrachtmuts 1874 - 1887

This is a photograph of a woman in traditional dress with a white bonnet, made by Godfried de Jong. It’s one of many such images that date from the late nineteenth century. Photography was then becoming a new means of production, transforming portraiture from a painstaking manual process to a chemical one. Although portrait painting remained an elite pursuit, many more people could afford to have their picture taken, as we see here. The most interesting thing about this image, to my eye, is the sitter's bonnet. This kind of headwear was handmade, a skilled tradition developed over generations. It represents a form of labor very different from that involved in photography. The bonnet speaks of long hours of careful stitching, while the photograph records in a fraction of a second the evidence of that work. Considering these different ways of making together, we can see how photography offered a new perspective on older traditions.