Man met opengesperde mond c. 1848 - 1854

Editor: Here we have Christian Heinrich Gottlieb Steuerwald’s "Man met opengesperde mond," which translates to “Man with Open Mouth,” an albumen print dating from somewhere between 1848 and 1854. It’s quite startling. I’m struck by the raw emotion it conveys. What can you tell me about how this kind of imagery circulated at the time? Curator: It’s interesting you find it startling; the image indeed offers an intensity often unseen in early portrait photography. Remember that in the mid-19th century, photography was still a relatively new medium. While portraiture was becoming increasingly accessible to the middle class, it still carried a certain weight and formality. I would venture that this piece may have functioned in the margins, or perhaps the studio context. Have you thought of its display or viewership? Editor: No, that's fascinating. I guess I just considered its striking immediacy without really thinking about where it might have existed! The idea of the "margins" really interests me. Is this intensity because the photographic apparatus hadn’t quite ossified into convention at that point? Was there less self-consciousness for both artist and subject? Curator: Precisely! We see this with the carte-de-visite craze, but not in official studio photography of the period. The democratization of the image played a vital role, wouldn’t you say? Now, how might the socio-political climate of the mid-19th century have influenced the way people viewed and engaged with such portraits? Editor: Hmm, perhaps the revolutionary fervor percolating across Europe? A challenge to established modes of representation mirroring the challenge to established political orders? Curator: Exactly. It gives us much to consider. It reminds us of how photography in its nascent years, pushed against social expectations. It provided a potent means to document the human condition, raw and unfiltered. Editor: This has really reshaped how I understand the photograph; it makes you think about photography as more than capturing appearances, and what photography and representation can achieve. Thanks.