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The quick development and prevalence of photography is related to the portrait trend at the end of the 19th century. The up and coming middle class, in trying to free itself from feudal constraints which were hampering its drive towards economic expansion, used the portrait as a means of self-portrayal. Facing one’s own image, admiring oneself and what one had attained and showing that “I am somebody” had been reserved for nobility long enough.

The new up and coming middle class searched for an adequate means of self-portrayal, which had to be simple enough to use (compared to the predecessors, such as the camera obscura), cheap, able to be mass-produced, and also had to allow for a “realistic”, authentic reproduction. It found it in photography.

After the official introduction of photography (in 1839 by Arago) and the purchase of patents by the French state, the large bourgeoisie (industrialists, etc.) were the first to receive the expensive “daguerreotypes”. The two “inventors” of photography, Niepce and Daguerre, were also well-to-do citizens. Released from the work process, they had time to experiment and had scientific studies.

Daguerreotypes were still expensive (one plate cost approximately 25 gold marks) and they were unique, so that they became a preferred “artistic” means of expression for the ruling and moneyed classes.

“It is estimated that around 1850, two thousand Daguerreotype’s were already in use, and that about three million photographs were made in 1853. The total production between 1840 and 1860 amounted to more than thirty million photographs. The price for a single picture was between two and a half and five dollars, depending on the size” (Freund, Gisele).