The Madame B Album c. 1870s

Editor: Here we have "The Madame B Album" from the 1870s, a collage of photographs and prints, touched with watercolor. The work looks like a fantastical crest. What can you tell me about the meaning behind its materiality and the cultural context that spawned this collection of applied pieces? Curator: It’s fascinating to consider this album in terms of its production. Rather than focusing on the artistic intention of the "author", consider this work as a product of its time, when photography and printmaking became increasingly accessible due to industrial advancements. How does mass production enable entirely new types of artistic production, such as the collage? Editor: I see what you mean! Suddenly it’s not just about individual artistic skill, but about curating and repurposing existing materials. Curator: Exactly! These decorative arts speak volumes about the consumer culture that was emerging. Albums like these showcased not only personal taste, but access to a wider world of imagery made possible by technological advances and burgeoning trade networks. Notice how "high" and "low" art become blurred, creating novel forms of visual expression. Where previously there might have been a greater sense of what materials were most "noble," a great democratization takes place, shifting the importance to the act of collecting. Editor: So the very act of compiling the album is part of the artistic statement? Curator: Precisely. It questions the traditional boundaries of art. The labor involved is not necessarily in the creation of the images themselves, but in their selection, arrangement, and the act of personalizing pre-existing materials to communicate a social standing, a hobby, a fascination with romantic notions and maybe even, a kind of proto-tourism. The album reflects the new possibilities, but more importantly it helps define how consumption creates its own artistic ecosystem. Editor: That’s a totally different way of looking at it! I hadn't considered the impact of industrial processes on what constitutes “art.” I’ll certainly remember this when I look at other works now.