Portret van John Joseph Mechi c. 1859 - 1864

This portrait of John Joseph Mechi was made by Downes & Co. Cundall, and inserted into a book. It's a photographic print, probably an albumen print, which was a popular process in the mid-19th century. The process involved coating paper with albumen, from egg whites, then sensitizing it with silver nitrate, and using a glass negative to create the final image. Albumen prints are known for their fine detail and warm brown tones, both of which you can see here. The materiality of the image itself—the use of eggs, silver, and light—shows the amount of work involved in creating a single photograph at this time. Consider too, that Mechi was a famous innovator in agriculture and his appearance in this form—a relatively new technology made available through mass production—speaks to his celebrity and the power of printed material in spreading new ideas, and raises questions about the relationship between artistic representation, social status, and the rise of industrial capitalism. It reminds us that photographs like this were not just images, but also commodities circulating in a rapidly changing world.