This cabinet portrait of a European man leaning against the back of a chair with one hand in his pocket was taken at the Hong Kong-based Afong Studio, which was active in the British colony from 1859 to 1941. Such studios were popular throughout Asia in the later decades of the 19th century. 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 introduced in Singapore following the arrival of the Europeans. 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.