Portret van een staande man 1860 - 1900

Curator: What a stern countenance. He projects such gravity. Editor: Indeed. We are looking at a mounted albumen print, titled "Portret van een staande man"—or "Portrait of a Standing Man"— created sometime between 1860 and 1900 by Perin & Schahl. This was the age of the burgeoning middle class using photography to signal status. Curator: You can see it, can't you? His erect posture, the neatly trimmed hair, even the subtle gleam of what appears to be a medal pinned to his coat. It is all part of the performance for posterity. Editor: Absolutely. That medal is a critical symbol here. Medals denoted valor and service. This photograph announces a very specific ambition: to present himself as an upstanding citizen. Notice, too, the hand resting formally on what appears to be a small table, another gesture towards respectability. It's a fascinating construction of bourgeois identity. Curator: Photography was still finding its feet then, wasn't it? This print seems so self-conscious, so deliberate. I am more intrigued by the role this image would have played at home and within society. Who was the sitter? What was his profession? Editor: Those are fantastic questions. I'm left wondering how successful he was at managing his image, since the print shows the man at a moment frozen in time and made into a powerful statement of achievement through material objects and dignified gestures. The details contribute so vividly to our understanding of his identity, but it could just be an ideal for who he wanted to be and not necessarily an authentic portrayal. Curator: Yes, this small framed albumen encapsulates how photography, then as now, constructs and solidifies roles. It’s an artifact, loaded with self-conscious aspirations. Editor: In the end, it’s still a fascinating peek into the values of that time and the subtle power of a portrait like this.