Portret van een man met bril 1895

Alfred Naumann made this portrait of a man with glasses in the late 19th or early 20th century. The portrait photograph was a new and powerful technology that changed social dynamics. Prior to its invention, painted portraits were only accessible to the wealthy, but now the middle classes could engage in similar displays of status. The framing of this photo is telling; its decorative flourishes mimic those of traditional oil paintings. The man’s suit and tie, and the gold frame suggests a similar reach for middle-class respectability. In Germany, this was a time of enormous social change. Photography studios sprang up in every town and city, as the newly formed German Empire searched for visual symbols of national unity. Historical research into portraiture of this era would help us to see more clearly how images can be understood as active agents in the construction of social identity.