Portret van een militair met pet en sabel in de hand c. 1860 - 1865

This photograph, portraying a military man, was produced by Leopold Haase & Co., sometime between 1831 and 1901. It is a ‘carte de visite’, a calling card, created through the wet collodion process. This technique involved coating a glass plate with light-sensitive chemicals, exposing it in a camera, and then developing the image immediately. It was a complex, time-sensitive process that demanded skill, speed, and precision. The popularity of carte de visite photography surged in the mid-19th century because it was a relatively inexpensive way to produce multiple copies of an image. This mass production was enabled by the industrialization of photography. The resulting photographs became accessible to a wider segment of society, extending beyond the elite who could afford painted portraits. This democratizing effect speaks volumes about the intersection of technology, labor, and social change in the Victorian era. Understanding photography's process and social context allows us to appreciate its historical significance, and the stories these images tell about a rapidly changing world.