Oorspronkelijk Amerikaanse vrouw met kind op Luna Island, nabij de Niagarawatervallen 1863 - 1894

Editor: This is a stereoscopic albumen print from somewhere between 1863 and 1894, by George Barker. It’s titled “Native American woman with child on Luna Island, near Niagara Falls." What strikes me is the sort of... manufactured naturalness of it. How do you read this work? Curator: What I notice is how this piece invites us to consider the means of its own production and distribution. Albumen prints were mass-produced at the time, especially as stereoscopic images. Consider the labor involved in creating a single one. Editor: That's fascinating! I was so focused on the subject matter, the people depicted, that I didn’t think of its circulation. Curator: And where were these images consumed? Likely middle-class Victorian homes. The depicted subject becomes almost like another manufactured object consumed by Victorian culture, much like the landscape itself which was rapidly being transformed by industrialization and tourism. What purpose did these images serve? Editor: Tourist souvenirs, perhaps? A way to consume an experience…or maybe to exoticize the Native American subject by displaying them with the famous landmark. Curator: Exactly! These images flatten the human experience and reduce it to a commodity. Furthermore, this particular albumen print employed a contact printing method. By placing the negative directly onto the sensitized paper, and exposing it to light. It invites reflection about what the process reveals. Editor: It's pretty thought-provoking. It changes how I perceive images and prompts to investigate not just the subject matter but its complete cycle and historical context. Curator: Indeed. By dissecting art through the lens of production and consumption, we begin to see art's interconnectedness with power structures and societal evolution.