Portret van een man met een snor in een jas c. 1857 - 1880

This portrait of a mustachioed man in a coat was produced by Woodbury & Page in Java, though we can't be sure exactly when. As a photograph, its status as a form of art was then hotly contested. What does it mean to elevate this kind of portrait to the walls of a museum? The clue might be in the words "W&P Photo. Java" printed on the card. Woodbury and Page were pioneers of commercial photography in the Dutch East Indies. They made a business selling images like this to a European elite eager to document their place in the colony. So, this seemingly simple image is bound up with complex dynamics of race, class, and colonialism. To fully understand this photograph, we might want to research the history of photography in colonial Indonesia, the biographies of Woodbury and Page, and the social history of Europeans living in Java at the time. By doing so, we can begin to understand the public role this kind of art played in its own time.