Carte de Visite
Shaun Castle 24 May 2006
Cartes de visite were popular from the 1850’s until 1900. They consisted of photos measuring about 3.5” x 2.25”, mounted on trade cards measuring about 4” x 2.5”.
Cartes were predominantly portraits, but also of mansions, landscapes and animals. The photography was composite, staged and reproducible.
For Walter Benjamin, this early photography was a powerful agent in the withering of ‘aura’ and its ultimate elimination in the age of mechanical reproduction. “It is no accident that the portrait was the focal point of early photography. The cult of remembrance of loved ones, absent or dead, offers a last refuge for the cult value of the picture. For the last time the aura emanates from the early photographs in the fleeting expression of a human face. This is what constitutes their melancholy, incomparable beauty” (1955).
For Walter Benjamin, this was a process leading to a tremendous shattering of tradition, of historical testimony, and the presence of the mansion.
From a collection of Cartes found in an old espadrilles box in Cumbria. Links to this post
