Untitled

O. H. Willard was a prominent Philadelphia photographer of the 1850s and 1860s, who contributed to general discussions about photography in the professional periodicals of the day. Like others who had started out as daguerreotypists, Willard migrated to the wet collodion (glass plate) process, which offered shorter exposure time and, unlike the unique positive image invented by Daguerre, yielded negatives with theoretically limitless reproducibility. The unknown sitter in this picture engages us with his clear, direct gaze. The print offers an excellent example of stock in trade of the era and suggests how photography could make an ordinary subject captured during a routine commission into a compelling figure.