Reproductie naar een foto van Willem Witsen c. 1860 - 1915

This is an anonymous reproduction of a photograph of Willem Witsen. We don’t know who made the reproduction or when, but the original photograph gives us some clues. Photography in the late 19th century was a slow, painstaking process, far removed from the instantaneity we know today. First, a glass plate had to be coated with a light-sensitive emulsion. Then, the subject would need to sit perfectly still for an extended period. The resulting image, captured through a lens, was a direct record of the light that bounced off the sitter, Witsen. But this is not just a snapshot. Look at the way Witsen is posed, the arrangement of pictures around him, and the lighting. The original photograph may have been conceived as a statement about artistic identity, or a simple portrait of a man surrounded by the labor of his work. The choice to reproduce this photograph is evidence of how photography has influenced other visual mediums, and the way we capture an image of everyday life.