Portret van Vendela Andersson-Sörensen, leunend op een stoel 1880 - 1890

Curator: This is Gösta Florman's "Portret van Vendela Andersson-Sörensen, leunend op een stoel", a albumen print portrait taken sometime between 1880 and 1890. Editor: The formality is striking. Look at the dense fabric of her dress. She sits almost rigidly, though the soft cushion and light coming in make it seem rather…intimate, even. Curator: Albumen prints were commercially popular because of their sharp detail and glossy surface. It shows that photographic portraits became widely accessible during this time, a powerful means for social representation. Consider the labor involved – preparing the glass plates, coating them with albumen from eggs, then developing the print. This was all intensive work that shaped photographic practices of the 19th century. Editor: Exactly. Photographic studios played a significant role in shaping the public image. The rising middle class gained access to portraiture. We have a sense of the sitter's aspirations— her carefully chosen velvet dress, her delicate hand position. Curator: And it wasn’t just about individual aspiration; it's about documenting social changes. Mass production of photography created archives. And then people were collected through them… Editor: Absolutely, that widespread practice led to categorization and societal framing. Portraits solidified ideas about identity, and notions about respectability at that time. Curator: Looking at the emulsion, you start to understand how crucial those materials were to defining what visual representation could even *be* at the time. Editor: The survival of the work becomes equally fascinating when considering the power and purpose images serve throughout history. Museums take over preservation for posterity. And the photo gets shown in exhibitions again. The original intention gets expanded upon… Curator: It’s a beautiful interplay of materials, process and broader historical forces. You begin to think differently about our relationship to image making then. Editor: Seeing "Portret van Vendela Andersson-Sörensen" reminds me how important it is to examine the choices people made for constructing and preserving individual and public identity back then.