In the early 2000s, Hot or Not was a popular web site that encouraged users to rate the attractiveness of women and men in photos that were voluntarily submitted by others. The site was a significant influence on the people who went on to create the social media sites Facebook and YouTube.
19th Century Hot or Not is nothing more than an absurd parody of Hot or Not, the original rating site that was immensely popular in the early days of the web.
Collectors of 19th-century studio portraits will likely agree that there are limited creative uses for dusty portraits of everyday folks that have been dead for a hundred years.
I created 19th Century Hot or Not as way to bring portraits back to the public view — and as a reminder of a time when studio portrait photography served a more practical and meaningful role in family and society as a whole.