Portret van een man met snor en baard 1880 - 1910

Heinrich Wilhelm Wollrabe made this photographic portrait sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. Like many photographs of the time, it is an albumen print, made by coating paper with egg white and silver nitrate. This creates a light-sensitive surface, meaning that it can be used to capture an image, making the end result a sepia tone. The materials and processes involved speak volumes about photography's position in society at the time. It was no longer an experimental technology, it was a means of memorializing people as a commodity. Albums like this one became highly popular as ways of displaying photographic images, and therefore, the people in them. Consider the amount of labor and resources that went into the making of this object, from the photographer's studio, to the printing, and assembly of the album. Seen in this light, photography really does blur the lines between art and craft.