Curatorial notes
This is Daniel Nyblin’s "Portret van een jongen", made with photographic materials and processes in the late 19th or early 20th century. The photographic process, especially by this time, involved a complex interplay of chemistry, optics, and labor. Each print required specific knowledge and careful execution, a blend of technical skill and artistic sensibility, by the photographer in their darkroom. The inherent qualities of the materials used – the light-sensitive emulsions, the paper stock – all contribute to the final image's tonal range and physical presence, while the subject, posed, dressed in respectable attire, reflects a growing middle class keen to avail themselves of the new medium. Photography, even in its infancy, was never solely an art, nor a science, but a product of industrial society. The image speaks to both individual portraiture, and mass production, and challenges distinctions between fine art and craft.
