This photographic portrait of two European men posing with beer was taken at The Straits Times Photographic Studio. Beer was the usual beverage consumed during dinner and represented a leisurely lifestyle among the European expatriates in the late 19th century. Such photographic studios were also popular during this period of time. Well-to-do families and individuals, mostly wealthy businessmen or European traders and government officials, visited these studios to have their photographs taken. Such a trend could also be seen as a continuation of traditional portraiture as a privilege of the affluent. Photography was invented in 1939 and introduced in Singapore in the decades following the arrival of British colonialists, as well as European traders and photographers. Early photography in Singapore consisted primarily of images for documentation and mass dissemination. Advancements in technology such as the advent of albumen prints (production of a photographic image from a negative) in the mid 19th century made photography a commercially viable sector in the Singapore economy.
