Portret van een onbekende vrouw 1855 - 1900

This is a carte-de-visite, or visiting card, featuring an unknown woman, made with paper and photographic emulsion, likely sometime in the mid-to-late 19th century. At the time, these cards were a novel form of vernacular photography, a relatively inexpensive way for people to represent themselves. The photographic image itself is an albumen print, developed using a solution of egg whites to bind the photosensitive chemicals to the paper. This was a cutting-edge technology at the time, and the use of photography to create images of this kind, meant that cards such as these could be mass produced for commercial distribution. What is interesting here is the way in which the card has been decorated with graphic elements, such as the frame and the bird. These types of embellishments would have been added to further personalize and enhance the portrait, blurring the boundaries between photography, graphic design, and printmaking. It is a compelling reminder of how new technologies are always rapidly absorbed into an existing culture of craft.