Post-mortemportret van een onbekende man 1863 - 1884

Editor: This gelatin-silver print, taken sometime between 1863 and 1884, is called "Post-mortem portrait of an unknown man." It's intensely melancholic, like a fading memory captured in sepia tones. What story do you think this photograph is trying to tell? Curator: Ah, a potent reminder of our shared mortality, isn't it? The Victorians, you see, had quite a unique relationship with death. These post-mortem photographs were a way of preserving the image of a loved one, a last tangible memory. Think of it as a memento mori, a "remember you must die" distilled into a single, still image. The genre paintings theme is very well encapsulated in the use of shadow. How do you feel about the almost… intimate portrayal, despite the obvious distance death creates? Editor: It's strange, I find it both unsettling and strangely comforting. Unsettling because it's so direct, but comforting because it's an attempt to hold onto someone. Is that what you mean? I wonder what the story is of the man in this photo? Curator: Precisely! It's a raw, unvarnished peek into grief. I’m thinking perhaps it was commissioned by family. Did it work? This trend soon became history! As to our unknown subject, his story remains shrouded in the very mystery the photograph attempts to dispel. This only addes another facet into the art of portraying history! Editor: I never thought about photography as being linked to history or genre paintings. That perspective adds another dimension! Curator: Indeed. Art constantly borrows and reinvents itself, and this poignant portrait is a quiet testament to that very idea. A single snapshot freezes a complex, poignant, uniquely strange historical idea.