Portret van een man met snor 1867 - 1880

Editor: This is "Portret van een man met snor," or "Portrait of a man with a moustache," dating from 1867 to 1880. It’s by Willem Gerhardus Kuijer, and the medium is albumen print. Looking at it, I am curious about the process. Photography at the time felt revolutionary, yet this portrait seems to solidify an emerging bourgeois identity. What can we really understand by considering how this image was produced? Curator: We can understand a great deal! Let’s focus on the albumen print. This process was a commodity, utilizing egg whites for binding and requiring a significant amount of labor. Consider who could afford a portrait and who labored to produce it. Does the sharp clarity of the photograph challenge the elitism associated with painted portraits, making representation more accessible, or does the labor-intensive printing process re-inscribe a different kind of hierarchy? Editor: I see your point. So, instead of thinking of photography as purely democratizing, the material production highlights existing social stratification. What about the subject's attire and the photographic studio backdrop? Does that matter? Curator: Absolutely. These elements aren’t neutral. The man's suit and bow tie speak to a specific social class presenting itself. And how the photographer is staging these elements also contributes meaning. How the subject presented themselves at the studio also is impacted by contemporary societal expectation. And considering that he chose this specific composition style... do you think it can reveal his aspiration, reflecting and perhaps constructing his social identity through consumption? Editor: That's a powerful way to think about it. I guess I hadn't considered how even something seemingly simple like a photographic portrait involves such a complex interplay of materials, labor, and social performance. Curator: Exactly! Analyzing art through the lens of material production and social context can really reveal previously unseen dynamics of power and identity. Editor: I will definitely be approaching photography, and portraiture in general, from this materialist perspective from now on! Thank you!