[Unidentified Woman at "Beach"]

Your Mirror: Portraits from the ICP Collection
Section: Self presentation
Because tintypes were much less expensive than other portrait media such as paintings or even daguerreotypes, they allowed sitters to be more theatrical and playful than middle-class society generally permitted. Women could subvert their social class in typical poses like this; a proper woman would never let down her hair in public, lest she be considered loose.