Exterieur van het gebouw op Boulevard Central 93 te Brussel 1875

Alexandre de Blochouse captured this photograph of the building on Boulevard Central 93 in Brussels. The image provides a glimpse into 19th-century urban development and social life, during a period when photography was intertwined with documenting modernization. The Boulevard Central itself was a symbol of progress, designed to showcase the city's economic and cultural aspirations. The architecture reflects a bourgeois aesthetic, indicative of the era's class structure. Buildings like this one housed the upper and middle classes, reinforcing a spatial segregation that mirrored social hierarchies. The commercial spaces at street level further highlight the intersection of economic activity and urban life. The photograph invites us to reflect on the ways in which urban spaces embody social and economic power, and how photography can serve as both a record and a critique of these dynamics. It reminds us to consider whose stories are told through the built environment and whose are often left unseen.