Gezicht op de resten van een aquaduct nabij Arles 1850 - 1855

This is Charles Nègre’s “View of the Remains of an Aqueduct near Arles,” a photograph made using a waxed paper negative. Nègre, a painter turned photographer, documented the changing face of France during a time of rapid industrialization. Here, the aqueduct, once a symbol of Roman engineering and power, is reduced to ruins overtaken by nature. Consider how Nègre frames the aqueduct not as a monument to progress, but as a relic of a bygone era. What does it mean to look back in this way? The photograph invites us to reflect on the passage of time and the impermanence of human endeavors. It's a meditation on history, memory, and the complex relationship between civilization and the natural world. This image asks us to consider what we value and preserve from the past, and what we leave behind.