Special Gatherings
Photographic group portraits often documented special events, such as an important meeting, a rare gathering, a new lodge, a celebratory excursion, or the election of new officers. With photography, this kind of portrait could be taken with relative ease and manageable expense.
Photographic portraits became increasingly common into the 1900s and offer the modern viewer the chance to learn about the people and groups depicted in them. We can better understand these images when we ask the question, “What does this portrait tell us?”
