R. & H. Stiles Photographers

The Stiles siblings ran a portrait studio in Cambridge, England, between gaslight and electric bulb, where students and scholars posed like they were already in a history book. They shot this Cambridge don in half-profile, his muttonchop side-lights and starched collar framed so the background blurs into a dream of towers and spires. Their glass negatives turn every sitter’s gaze into a quiet challenge: you half-expect Dr. Middleton to step out of the print and into the street.