Acht portretten van kroonprins Willem 1859 - 1860

This photographic print of eight portraits of Crown Prince Willem was made by André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri. Disdéri was a real innovator, one of the first to mass produce photographs using the carte de visite format. This was quite a clever system; Disdéri used a camera with multiple lenses to take several shots on a single negative. This way, he could produce multiple images on one glass plate, vastly reducing the cost of materials and labor. The result was a smaller, more affordable portrait, which fueled the democratization of photography. The carte de visite became wildly popular, a must-have item for anyone wanting to participate in modern society. Disdéri’s invention wasn’t just about technological advancement; it was a canny business model that tapped into the burgeoning consumer culture of the 19th century. It blurred the line between art and commodity, making portraiture accessible to a broader public. It is an object deeply entangled with the machinery of capitalism.