Portret van een jongeman met een jas en een strikje 1857 - 1862

Curator: I’m immediately struck by the ethereal quality of this piece. The subject seems almost to emerge from the hazy background. Editor: Well, let's give our listeners some context first. This is "Portret van een jongeman met een jas en een strikje" - Portrait of a young man with a jacket and bow, created sometime between 1857 and 1862 by Walter Bentley Woodbury. It's an albumen print, which accounts for some of that hazy quality. Curator: Yes, that early photographic process definitely contributes. I see a symbol of nascent adulthood, though perhaps tinged with melancholy; that bow tie is meticulously tied but the sitter looks as if a storm is brewing in their soul. Or maybe it is merely the seriousness that photographic portraiture of the period demanded of its subjects. Editor: It’s fascinating to consider how studio portraiture democratized representation, creating new visual rhetoric. Woodbury mass-produced such photographs to generate an income. He also tinkered extensively with photomechanical printing techniques, but let us stick to what is presented before us: in this formal portrait, what can we discern about the relationship between sitter, the means of production and the ascendant middle classes of the day? Curator: Well, there's definitely an aspirational quality at play. A suit and bow tie would signify belonging and societal mobility. One’s visual presentation certainly affected one’s perception of one’s person. And this would ripple out into their family and social groups. Editor: Exactly, the very act of commissioning the photo. Think about the economics and societal factors – the time and expense involved! This seemingly straightforward image embodies vast amounts about the shift to mass image production and Victorian self-regard. The young man and his clothing almost constitute performance – a staged effort that nevertheless remains candid about itself, with only the upper torso being the focus and without background embellishments so favored among earlier portrait artists. Curator: I find myself still returning to the young man’s gaze, how that single instant has become so powerfully, enduringly fixed. In some respects, this photographic slice of life transcends this very historical context that you have identified! Editor: It is indeed compelling; those eyes hint at myriad untold stories. Considering that the photograph can be mass produced, there's the element of an aura being created around those being reproduced. It will become difficult, as Benjamin keenly noted, to decipher art’s place in an increasingly reproduced world. Curator: Ultimately, art remains an emblem for and of its society, just as an artist holds a mirror up to their culture in which, in return, a work gains both complexity and significance. Editor: Indeed, even a ‘simple’ photograph conceals entire worlds, whole constellations of making, meaning, and the material conditions from which it emerged!