Portret van een onbekend meisje 1865 - 1884

This is a photograph of an unknown girl, made by Paul Arthur Crosnier in the 19th century. It's a carte-de-visite, a small type of photograph which was mounted on card stock. Now, photography was quite a new medium at this time. The process of creating photographs involved using darkroom techniques and chemical processes, which were becoming more industrialized. The image here has a formal quality. The girl’s stance, the furniture, even the dress she wears, all speak to the burgeoning middle class and their aspirations. The creation of such an image would have been very special, and the photograph becomes an object that commemorates a moment, but also communicates social status. By considering the materiality and production of this photograph, we see how it reflects the rapidly changing world of the 19th century. It’s a reminder that even a small object like this can tell us a lot about history, labor, and the ways in which we represent ourselves.