Based in Maine, USA, Robert Smith presents "Photographs," a portfolio housed within a bound leather book from c. 1900-1920 featuring 53 cyanotypes capturing everyday life. The subjects' identities and the photographer remain unknown; Robert Smith is a pseudonym used for this sample portfolio. Several images from the series are situated at Pleasure Island Camp, Cupsuptic Lake, Maine, USA. but the location of other images is unclear.

Photographs challenges the conventional perception of the past by establishing an emotional connection to the present through candid moments with subjects of various ages. Historical photographs often exude a distant ambiance as the prevailing societal choice was for neutral expressions. This formality was influenced by technical limitations of exposure times but also by the serious, expensive nature of early portraiture sessions. With the advent of more accessible photography equipment like the Kodak Brownie, poses began to soften. Photographs is held by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Find links to the originals in the bottom left corner of each artwork webpageor explore the 53 cyanotype collection here. 

Cyanotypes are prints made by coating paper with a light-sensitive solution and using exposure and cold water to fix the image. In the case of photographic cyanotypes, a film negative is placed over the prepared cyanotype page and exposed to light to create the image.