Portret van een onbekende vrouw met hoofdtooi volgens de klederdracht van Zuid-Holland 1860 - 1890

This photographic portrait of an unknown woman in traditional South Holland dress was made by Andries Jager, who lived from 1825 to 1905. The photograph itself, with its carefully posed subject and hand-tinted color, speaks to the rise of commercial photography. It was a novel way to record likeness, and to project identity. The woman's garments are themselves potent materials, indexical of a place and time. The lace, linen, and gold filigree of her headdress represent many hours of skilled labor, likely performed by women in their homes or small workshops. Such images, widely distributed, played a role in constructing a sense of national and regional identity, and like so many other photographs, document fashion as a display of wealth and social status. This image allows us to consider the relationship between identity, labor, and visual culture. By looking closely at these aspects, we can move beyond seeing it just as a pretty picture.