Kashmir; On the Scinde River, Above Sonamurg c. 1867

Curator: Samuel Bourne captured this scene, "Kashmir; On the Scinde River, Above Sonamurg," and looking at it, I feel this sense of quiet vastness. The mountains cradle everything. Editor: That stillness is deceptive. Think of the labor involved: Bourne lugging heavy equipment across unforgiving terrain, the chemical processes, and the sheer contingency of getting a good image in that environment. Curator: True, the journey itself becomes part of the story. I keep imagining the air, thin and crisp, scented with pine. How the light must have played on the water. It’s almost dreamlike. Editor: Bourne, though, was deeply embedded in the colonial project, and these landscapes were often presented as untouched, ripe for exploitation, obscuring existing labor and local industry. Curator: But the photograph still possesses a raw, almost spiritual quality. It whispers of hidden places, of a world both ancient and enduring. I feel peace. Editor: And yet, its materiality tells a different story: of empire, extraction, and the industrial processes that made such images possible in the first place. Curator: I suppose it’s about holding both truths, then, isn’t it? Editor: Precisely. An image, however beautiful, is always more than meets the eye.