Portret van John Gray McKendrick before 1891

Curator: This is a photographic portrait of John Gray McKendrick, likely a gelatin silver print dating from before 1891. It's a fairly conventional academic portrait of the era, part of a bound volume we have here. Editor: There's something haunting about seeing this image paired with what seems to be its ghost. The print on the facing page is so faded; it makes you wonder about the ephemerality of the photographic medium itself. Curator: It certainly prompts contemplation. Looking at the image of McKendrick himself, I see the visual markers of Victorian-era patriarchy and the performative elements of academia that were exclusive to a small segment of society at that time. Editor: Precisely, the trappings of class are so interesting here: the crisp paper, the depth of tone achieved through the gelatin silver process. You know these materials weren't widely accessible. And McKendrick looks quite pleased with himself, framed by what he has purchased, and thus is. Curator: Consider also the cultural and philosophical context that underpinned this kind of portraiture. It speaks to broader social and historical inequalities and power dynamics present at the end of the nineteenth century in Europe and its colonies. Who was able to get their image immortalized? Whose labor went into it? What purpose did that portrait serve within society? Editor: Agreed, but the photographic medium also introduces some novel possibilities: The sitter no longer needed to be wealthy or aristocratic for example, with new technology new class imaginaries and social configurations were made possible even if the sitter needed still some capital to do that. This picture is not merely "for" him, or of him, it is partially *made* possible because of him and those under him. Curator: That said, despite its initial availability as a technology, photographic portraiture continued to perpetuate very specific ideals of beauty and status and what it means to be a male academic of that era in Scotland. It would be important to think critically about this type of imagery today and about those images and identities which may still be absent from visual archives. Editor: This single page allows us a direct connection to these conversations, allowing the material and spectral McKendrick here to confront our time directly. Curator: Indeed, it sparks important questions about representation, labor and memory, as we reassess historical legacies within institutions such as museums, and the responsibility in acknowledging absences that shape them.