Portret van een zittende man met boek 1860 - 1868

This photograph by Peter Carstensen shows a seated man with a book. It's a relatively early example of photography, and knowing the process involved is key to appreciating it. This image would have been painstakingly captured using a wet collodion process. This involved coating a glass plate with chemicals, exposing it in the camera while still wet, and then developing it immediately. Think about the labor involved, and the degree of technical skill required, compared to taking a picture today! The resulting image, a collodion print, is fragile and has a unique tonal range - notice the delicate gradations of light and shadow. The oval format and presentation within a decorative case were typical of portraiture at the time, and the subject's pose and attire speak to a desire for social representation. The value of this photograph isn't just in its visual content, but in understanding it as a product of its time, deeply rooted in the history of technology, labor and social identity.