Interieur van de Sint-Pauluskathedraal in Luik 1873 - 1890

Editor: Here we have a gelatin-silver print, "Interieur van de Sint-Pauluskathedraal in Luik", placing us inside St. Paul's Cathedral in Liège, sometime between 1873 and 1890. The sepia tone and slightly blurry focus give it a dreamlike, almost ghostly quality. It feels like stepping back in time. What details strike you most about this photograph? Curator: The soaring Gothic arches and the sheer verticality absolutely take my breath away. Don't you feel like you could just get lost in the lines of the architecture, which seem to stretch toward some divine, unknowable point? It also plays with light in a fascinating way, wouldn't you agree? The way it streams in and then is almost devoured by the darkness of the cathedral… Editor: Absolutely, there's this dance between light and shadow that creates so much drama. And is that an altar screen in the foreground? Curator: It is! Isn't it just extraordinary how they have framed that small area where human meets divine against this monumental, historical architecture? The whole thing gives you this feeling of not only reverence but even perhaps smallness against something eternal. This tension of light versus dark makes me consider this feeling, but I am intrigued as to your view, Editor? Editor: The perspective shifts are incredible to consider too. The vast space of the cathedral kind of dwarfs the religious symbols, almost questioning, is it all really real? Thank you for showing a new light with how these works tie into emotion. Curator: It is precisely that play of human versus space that grabs me every single time, too. Thanks to you, I see it differently now, too!