Portret van een staande jongen in uniform met steek en sabel 1855 - 1890

This small portrait of a boy in uniform, complete with sword and formal hat, was made by J. Nal y Cia., using photographic techniques. Photographs like this one capture a moment of identity and aspiration. The subject’s clothing and accoutrements signify military service, but the material reality is more complex. Photography in this era involved a chemical process, requiring skill and careful labor to produce an image. And the boy's uniform was surely produced in a factory. The photograph itself becomes an artifact of a burgeoning industrial age, documenting not just the individual, but the systems of production and labor that defined his world. Thinking about the amount of labor involved in the production of photographs, as well as the garments and objects that appear within them, helps us to see these images as more than just simple portraits. They are documents of social status, material culture, and the networks of production that connect people across time and space.