Portret van een onbekend meisje met een poppenwagen c. 1890 - 1910

This photograph by A.W.E. Frank captures a young girl with her doll in Amsterdam. The sepia tone comes from a process of chemical development on photographic paper; a process that involves a darkroom, careful timing, and expensive materials. This kind of photograph was an emerging technology at the time, and its material presence influenced what it meant to have one made. Here, we see a display of middle-class status; a portrait of this kind was costly. Notice the doll carriage: the basketwork, the cast metal wheels. All of these materials signify money, craft, and industry. The doll too, with its porcelain face and elaborate dress. The making of these objects, and even the making of the photograph itself, would have involved many hands. These processes have imbued the image with social significance, as it speaks to the ways in which childhood and class were constructed, and carefully presented, in this time and place. It's a reminder that photographs are not just images, but material objects with their own story to tell.