Portraiture in the early days were mainly for those with money, those of importance. While we still recognize the elegant stature of a portrait of the Queen, portraiture can now be for anyone. Portraits took time to create and produce, yet today, can be taken digitally with a click and printed within a few moments. There are similarities, such as going to a professional studio to have your portrait completed, and the popultarity of celebrity portraits. Having photos of ourselves never seems to go out of style – the 'vogue of the portrait' (Fruend, Gisele).
Today, anyone can be in photographs and take photographs, with the ease of digital photography. In the past, portraiture photography was an art. Disderi, the daguerreotypist and creator of carte-de-visite, stated 'The chosen format (for portraits) was, by reason of its costliness, not accessible to the public masses. It was this obstacle to the progress of photography, constituted by the costs inherent in the production of large prints that led us to reduce the portrait to the dimensions of a carte-de-visite” (Lemagny, Rouille). When the daguerreotype method of photography was in use, luxurious studios were created to cater to “industrialists, doctors, lawyers, merchants, politicians” (Lemagny, Rouille). According to Freund, “By having one's portrait done an individual of the ascending classes could visually affirm his new social status both to himself and to the world at large and it allowed others to know how famous and important you were to have your portrait taken” (Fruend, Gisele).
With the technology we use today, we are able to snap a picture, load it onto a computer, change the lighting, flaws, crop people in or out, change the entire photo, and print in out in a matter of moments. Photos are everywhere, in newspapers, magazines, online, cell phones and is so accessible. In the past, costs were an issue, so Edward Anthony standardized his operations of his studio/laboratory, to cut the cost of his daguerreotype portraits, and when the negative printing came to be, glass plates were used as they were less expensive than copper for daguerreotype (Fruend, Gisele).
Photo Credits:
Toby Roberts
Disderi, George Eastman House Collection, Owner
Queen Elizabeth, Owner Unknown
Daguerreotype, Owner Unknown
Owner Unknown,
