The Cavalry Lance Corporal
A beautifully sharp portrait of a Hungarian lance corporal, preserved on its original glass negative. The image comes from the surviving collection of a professional studio photographer and has been scanned in its full size, without any cropping, allowing the original negative to be appreciated exactly as it has survived.
Glass plate negatives were the standard medium for professional photographers during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Because they were relatively expensive, many photographers reused them after the customer had received the finished prints. Occasionally, however, a negative was retained so that additional copies could be produced in the future, and it is thanks to this practice that portraits such as this have survived.
The dark borders visible around the image were never intended to appear in the finished photograph. During printing, the photographer cropped the negative to create the final composition. Any retouching was carried out directly on the glass negative itself while it was being processed, which explains the clear central area and the markings visible outside the intended print area.
This photograph is one of several surviving glass negatives from the same studio collection. They offer a fascinating insight into both Hungarian military portraiture and the photographic techniques of the period. More images from this remarkable heritage will be published here on the website in the future.
