Portret van een zittende vrouw 1861 - 1866

Editor: This is "Portrait of a Seated Woman," taken between 1861 and 1866 by Louis Robert Werner, and it's a gelatin silver print. The way her dark dress contrasts with the pale background is quite striking. What strikes you about it? Curator: I am particularly interested in the choice of gelatin silver as a medium. Its relatively recent adoption reflects industrial advancements impacting artistic practice. What socioeconomic conditions enabled Werner to procure these materials? Also, consider the labor involved: the preparation of the gelatin emulsion, the exposure, the developing process. Editor: That's a good point! It’s easy to forget how much work went into just producing the photograph itself. So, are you saying that even the *type* of photography says something about labor and society? Curator: Precisely! The standardization of photographic materials meant portraiture became more accessible to a broader segment of the population. Previously a domain of the elite, the material reality of photography democratized image-making to some extent. What were the economic opportunities afforded by these processes? Were new markets developed or old labor displaced by industrial techniques of production? Editor: That’s really insightful. I hadn’t considered photography in terms of accessibility and economics. So, thinking about it as a material product rooted in specific historical conditions makes you question the sitter, her access to these processes? Curator: Exactly. Looking at the subject through this lens helps consider new angles. Editor: I guess I usually look at portraits as just depictions of people, but it's more than that. Curator: Always more. Analyzing photography through the material processes that underpin its creation reveals much more about the society that birthed it.