Portret van een onbekende man before 1903

This is a portrait of an unknown man by Fritz Loescher. Though undated, the image and the printing quality suggest it was made in Germany in the early twentieth century. The stern looking man with glasses and a moustache seems to have been printed in a book which also details photographic apparatus. How might this image create meaning through visual codes and historical associations? Germany was a world leader in the production of scientific instruments, with the universities of Berlin, Munich, and Heidelberg attracting scholars from around the world. Photography as a science as well as an art was part of this movement. The image comments on the social structures of its own time as science was seen as a noble endeavor and one for well-dressed gentlemen. To better understand this photograph, we might research Loescher to discover more of his intentions. We can only grasp the meaning of art by situating it in the social and institutional context of its creation.