Portret van G.H. Gregory 1871

This is David Scott’s photographic portrait of G.H. Gregory. It's an albumen print from a carte-de-visite, a calling card. These small photographs mounted on card stock became popular in the mid-19th century, part of an emerging culture of celebrity and mass media. What was once a preserve of the aristocracy, having one’s portrait made, was now accessible to a wider public. In Europe, the carte-de-visite became wildly popular, and was used for everything from personal mementos to political propaganda. But let’s not forget photography's role in colonialism, where images of people from other cultures were used to reinforce European dominance. To understand this image, we might consult photographic archives, social histories of 19th-century portraiture, and studies of the carte-de-visite phenomenon. In doing so, we might gain a better sense of this photograph’s historical and cultural significance.