Portret van een onbekende man 1861 - 1874

Albert Greiner made this photographic portrait in Amsterdam, but the sitter's name is unknown. Photographs like this were part of a rapidly expanding visual culture in the 19th century. The sitter’s suit and tie signifies a certain level of bourgeois respectability. But the key interest here lies in the role of the photographer, whose name and address is prominently displayed, advertising his services. Greiner calls himself an "immortal" photographer. He is selling not just a likeness, but a kind of secular immortality made possible by the still-new technology of photography. The rise of commercial photography studios changed visual culture and artistic production. New institutions developed, like photography schools, galleries, and journals. To fully understand it, a historian might research the changing legal status of photographs, or study the impact of new reproductive technologies on painting. Either way, this simple image turns out to be deeply embedded in its specific time and place.