Portret van Jacobus Cornelius Kapteijn, hoogleraar wis- en natuurkunde in Groningen en rector magnificus van 1890 tot 1891 before 1891

This is a photograph of Jacobus Cornelius Kapteijn, a professor at Groningen University, made by Friedrich Julius von Kolkow. The print is small, only 96 mm high, a size made possible by advances in photographic reproduction during the late 19th century. These dimensions made images like this collectible on a mass scale. This one is pasted into an album. This was a very popular format, a Victorian version of the scrapbook that allowed people to gather images and arrange them according to personal taste. The tonal range of the photographic print, from light grays to near blacks, shows us that a relatively sophisticated chemical process was at play. But more than that, it speaks to a wider democratization of image-making. Photography had emerged as a powerful new means of documentation and artistic expression. The scale of photographic production was growing exponentially, and the album is a telling artifact of this shift. It documents the changing relationship between art, industry, and everyday life.