Portret van een vrouw met een hooggesloten jurk 1888 - 1906

This portrait of a woman was made by V.E. Vandycke using photographic techniques in an unknown time and place. It’s a modest object, one of many made possible by the late-nineteenth-century popularization of photography. Before this, portraiture was only for the wealthy, but the rise of photography meant that ordinary people could have their image recorded, too. The image is small, and the woman’s face is softened by the effects of the chemicals used to create it. There is a directness in her gaze. The photographic process, while dependent on complex chemistry, also relies on the subject’s stillness and the light, which etches their image onto the photographic plate. Photographs like this represent a signal shift in social history and the democratization of image-making. They remind us that every image, whether high art or mass-produced, carries its own cultural and historical weight.