Clara Pilvois; Simon 1850s - 1860s

This photographic album page titled "Clara Pilvois; Simon" was created by André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri. The arrangement of photographic portraits, set against the album's muted blue, is striking. Disdéri disrupts conventional portraiture by presenting multiple images on a single page. The sepia tones and the varying poses and outfits of the subjects add to the page's dynamic interplay. Each photograph serves as a signifier, contributing to a larger narrative about identity, representation, and the burgeoning culture of celebrity in the mid-19th century. The formal repetition of images invites a structuralist reading, where meaning is derived from the relationships between the individual elements. The subjects, captured in diverse roles and costumes, hint at the performative aspects of social identity. Ultimately, the artwork's power lies in its ability to destabilize fixed meanings. It encourages us to question the very nature of representation and to explore the complex interplay between image, identity, and cultural context.