Emmanuel Frémiet 1854 - 1855

Adrien Tournachon made this photograph of Emmanuel Frémiet using the collodion process on paper. The wet collodion process made photography more accessible, but also shaped its visual language. The process required long exposure times, which influenced the way people posed and the overall aesthetic of early portrait photography. Here, Frémiet, a renowned sculptor, is captured in a moment of poised self-presentation, adjusting his tie with a subtle air of confidence. The soft lighting and sepia tones evoke a sense of nostalgia, but this image complicates our understanding of the nineteenth-century male identity, because Frémiet presents himself as both a professional and a gentleman. Tournachon’s work invites us to consider how photography, even in its early stages, played a role in constructing and disseminating narratives of selfhood and social standing.