More broadly, the carte de visite was a means of communicating social importance and forming relationships. Volpe also describes the way images of soldiers and freed black slaves were used to rally support for the Union, and establish a nascent form of national identity during this time of severe social and political fissures.
Volpe writes in the New York Times, for black soldiers in particular it was a powerful “claim to recognition” in a society that had rendered them invisible. In the United States, the popularity of the carte de visite coincided with the Civil War, and many soldiers left their loved ones with one as a token of remembrance. Sitting for one’s portrait was no longer a sole luxury of the upper crust. With the ability to add one’s portrait to the card, the carte de visite represented a natural next step in pictorial communication.īecause of the modest size and low cost of the carte de visite, this new art form signaled the democratization of photography. With the increased capacities of printing technology, visiting cards of the time typically featured ornate designs and bright colors. Conveniently, it was also approximately the size of a calling card, the wealthy Victorian socialite’s version of a business card, which they distributed to friends and acquaintances during house calls.
Disdéri initially developed the carte de visite as a way of saving production costs-the small size of the photograph allowed him to take eight separate pictures for every single photographic plate. In 1854, French photographer André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri patented the carte de visite, a slender 2 1/2-by-4-inch photographic print mounted on sturdy paper. The idea behind the profile picture is much older than the advent of social media, however-it’s as old as the photographic medium itself. Whether a formal headshot, carefully crafted selfie, or ironic meme, our profile picture represents a core aspect of our online identities. In our age of rabid social media use, the profile picture has become the de facto online avatar.