The introduction of cabinet cards in the 1860s changed Americans’ relationship to photography. Relatively inexpensive and three times larger than the previous popular vernacular format, cartes de visite, they provided space for sitters to express themselves through playful poses, creative scenarios, and special effects. Intent on turning photography from a special occasion that happened only a few times in a person’s life into a casual and regular activity, photographers stocked their studios with an array of backdrops, overlays, and sets, and they advertised extensively to lure in new and repeat customers.

Here, a well-dressed woman in an Ohio studio is shown within a prop frame, staring wistfully off camera. But her body comes slightly through the set, playing with the idea of the photographic “frame” and breaking the flatness of the image. She gestures to the name of the photographer, apparently pleased with her portrayal and happy to “point” others in Nichols’s direction.

—Text taken from the Carter Handbook (2023)