Stockings 1858 - 1862

Editor: Here we have "Stockings," a photograph created sometime between 1858 and 1862, currently held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There’s something incredibly intimate about a photograph of everyday items. What's your take on this piece? Curator: It's precisely that intimacy, and its public display, that I find fascinating. Photography was still relatively new at this point. Consider what it meant to isolate an article of clothing – something so personal – and present it for observation. What do you think the original intent might have been? Editor: I suppose it's an unusual subject, unless the goal was to showcase the knitting technique or something practical like that. Curator: Exactly! It could serve as a catalogue for potential buyers of the stocking; consider it advertising the detailed designs and craftsmanship that went into creating such articles for consumption by targeted members in society. Don't you think that such representation highlights the social structure back then? Editor: Definitely. This feels like a moment captured to speak about socioeconomic status and societal structures. Were photographs like this widely accessible or exclusive to a certain class at the time? Curator: Good question. While photography was becoming more widespread, portraiture and the documentation of personal belongings often still signaled a level of affluence. The very act of having these stockings photographed elevates them and, by extension, perhaps the owner. Now that we have looked at a captured article of clothing and placed it within a socioeconomic class in society, do you find photography speaks truth? Editor: Thinking about that context, I hadn't considered how deeply enmeshed economics are in something as simple as a pair of stockings, but the way you framed it makes total sense. I will definitely keep the history behind artistic items when I see it from now on! Curator: And I am equally enthralled by seeing photography from the perspectives of others.