William Castle (1836-1909) 1869 - 1874

This is a portrait of William Castle made by Jeremiah Gurney, a photographer working in the 19th century. It’s a ‘carte-de-visite,’ a calling card made of an albumen print on paper. The process starts with a glass negative, which is then contact printed onto sensitized paper and mounted to a card. It was an ingenious format. By using multiple lenses on a single camera, many exposures could be made on one plate, enabling mass production. The result was a booming business, democratizing portraiture. Suddenly, ordinary people could afford to have their likeness recorded. But we should remember the labour involved. From preparing the light-sensitive emulsions to posing the sitter, photography was a complex, material process. Looking at Mr. Castle, we see not only his moustaches and fine suit, but also the skilled work and complex technologies that brought this image into being. Ultimately, photographic portraits like this blur the line between fine art and everyday commodity, reflecting a broader shift in the 19th century toward mass production and consumption.