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With the introduction of the “Kodak Box” (1890, advertising slogan: You press the button, we do the rest), the foundation was put in place for a continually expanding amateur market. From this point on people were able to portray themselves without any further knowledge of photography. As a reaction to the popularization of photography, artistic photographers tried to differentiate themselves from the masses through formal finesse (bromide print, rubber print, etc.).

“More than ever, photographers aspired to approach the art of painting with their work. Those photographs which came closest to paintings gained the greatest amount of admiration” (Freund, Gisele 1979).

With the introduction of the “Kodak Box” and the related technological innovations such as the dry plates coated with silver bromide, the demand for large-scale reproductions grew. Even before newspapers and magazines could meet this demand, the production of postcards reached its zenith around the turn of the century.

Around 1900 the production statistics provided the following numbers: Germany – 50 million citizens, 88 million postcards; Belgium – 6.5 million citizens, 12 million postcards; France – 38 million citizens, 8 million postcards. In 1910 the number of postcards printed in France alone was estimated to be around 123 million, and the number of workers in this industry was approximately 33 000.

The postcards were the first mass media for photography. They were cheap and allowed everyone to bring the “world” into their own living room.