Featured Question about cabinet cards

I read somewhere that back in the day, early 1900's, poor people would dress up in rented clothes and pose for a picture. Was that always the case or did everyone have cabinet card pictures taken regardless of their status?
If photography was a relatively new thing back then, I would think that it wasn't just for the working classes.

 

By the early 1900's, mass consumer photography was around 60 years old. It did start out just for the rich, with ambrotypes and daguerreotypes being the more expensive options. The "lower" class would settle for cdv's and tintypes and then cabinet cards eventually.

 

By the early 1900s the Eastman Kodak company had revolutionized the taking of photos by coming out with cameras with film, for consumers who were not professional photographers. For example, the Brownie camera. There were a lot more candid shots and photos coming out by that period of time, although of course the studios still did a great business.

But as Kronos said, during an earlier period of time, say 1840s-1860s, there was often a distinction.

And you did ask about cabinet cards. Those were taken for people at any level, since they were the dominant type of photo available in the latter 20-30 years of the 19th century.

 

To expand a bit: photographers would often keep a wardrobe of clothing, jewelry, books, musical instruments, fancy chairs, etc., for those who requested a bit of gussying up.

Itinerant, folk art portrait painters did much the same. Some even pre-painted the entire figure except for the face, which was added in last. This is why great-Great-Aunt Bertha's head is exceptionally large (or small) vis a vis the rest of the figure. It is also why she is wearing that huge diamond that no one could ever find after her death.

 

I remember reading that Martha Stewart always loved her mother's floral bouquet from her wedding and recreated the look so others could have it at their current weddings.

When Stewart asked her mother where she got the bouquet from (years later) her mother told her it was a stock bouquet that the photographer used for brides.

 

Hi Silver,
Reminded me of great aunt Ida. When her husband commissioned a painting for their 50th wedding anniversary. She had the artist paint in a gorgeous emerald necklace , pin and ring. She said if she died first she wanted her husbands new wife to hound him about where are the emeralds. The old gal had a wonderful sense of humor.
greg