Portret van een man c. 1870

R.P. Lammers, a photographer from Drachten, made this small portrait of a man. It's printed on a carte-de-visite, a popular format at the time. These cards weren't just personal mementos. They were deeply embedded in the social fabric of the 19th century. Photography studios emerged as new institutions, democratizing portraiture and making it accessible to a growing middle class. Think about the rituals surrounding these images: exchanging them, collecting them in albums, displaying them in homes. They became tools for constructing and communicating social identity. This man’s stern gaze and formal attire speak to the values of respectability and seriousness. But who was he? What was his place in the social hierarchy? An art historian might look into the archives of Drachten to uncover more about its local history and institutions. By understanding the context in which this photograph was made and circulated, we can begin to glimpse the complex social world it inhabited.