Portret van een man 1860 - 1875

This portrait of a man was made with photographic techniques, likely in the mid-19th century, by J.H. Lloyd. The photographic processes of the 1800s were complex. This image would have involved coating a surface with light-sensitive chemicals, exposing it in a camera, and then developing the resulting latent image. The final print is an albumen print, which is a photograph printed on paper coated with egg white to increase its sensitivity and give it a glossy surface. The tonal range, from light highlights to dark shadows, would have been carefully controlled during the chemical processing. This was painstaking work. The rise of photography changed the nature of portraiture, making images accessible to a broader public. It also created new kinds of labor, a democratization that was not without its own challenges, as skilled artists had to come to terms with this new medium.