Portret van Marie van Oranje-Nassau, prinses der Nederlanden 1855 - 1870

This is a photograph of Marie van Oranje-Nassau, Princess of the Netherlands, made by Leopold Haase & Co. The photograph itself, though a representational image, is also the product of a chemical and mechanical process. It involves light-sensitive materials, precise lenses, and the skilled labor of a photographer who understood how to manipulate these elements to create a lasting image. This emerging technology democratized image-making and distribution, yet also relied on particular types of labor, and ways of seeing. Consider the subject, Princess Marie; her dress, seemingly made of silk taffeta, speaks to the fashion of the time. It’s a cultural symbol, reflecting the wealth and status of the sitter, but also the intensive labor of textile production. The photograph is as much about the materials it depicts, and the processes that created them, as it is about the person portrayed. This allows us to appreciate the complex historical context in which it was made.