Portret van een onbekende vrouw, aangeduid als Therese Ohroald 1870 - 1885

Carl Johan Dahlquist, a photographer working out of Helsingborg, Sweden, produced this small portrait print of an unknown woman, likely in the late 19th century. The image is both intimate and generic. On one hand, it attempts to capture the individual likeness of its sitter. Yet its small size, combined with the lack of identifying information, reduces her to a type. Her dress and hair place her within the bourgeoisie, yet her anonymity underscores the degree to which photography was becoming industrialized and democratized at this time. Studios churned out such images to cater to the vanity of a growing middle class. The question of who she was might be answered by consulting genealogical records or photographic archives in Sweden. Such research can help us understand the social world that made the image possible. Ultimately, an artwork like this reminds us that its meaning is always tied to the social and institutional contexts in which it was made and viewed.