Interieur van de galerij van het Campo Santo te Pisa, Italië 1860 - 1881

Curator: Giacomo Brogi created this gelatin silver print between 1860 and 1881, titled "Interieur van de galerij van het Campo Santo te Pisa, Italië" or "Interior of the Gallery of the Campo Santo in Pisa, Italy". Editor: Ah, the light! It strikes me first. How the sun bleeds through those gothic arches, laying these insistent stripes across what looks like… are those sarcophagi? There’s a serene almost haunted beauty. Curator: Indeed, what we are seeing is an interior view of the arcaded gallery that surrounds the Campo Santo, Pisa’s monumental cemetery. Brogi, with his mastery of the gelatin silver process, not only captures the play of light and shadow but also showcases the textures of the marble and stone. This was a period when photography served not only as documentation but also as a medium to examine architectural spaces. Editor: I see what you mean, it does feel like a deliberate study. The light becomes another building material alongside the marble, and how cool is that. You know I can almost feel the coolness of the marble in contrast to the intensity of that sun streaming in. Makes you think about life, death, you know the usual cemetery stuff. Curator: The printing process is significant, too. The gelatin silver print allowed for greater tonal range and sharpness compared to earlier photographic methods, meaning Brogi had a great control over how his prints translated the reality of this monumental building. This process made images reproducible for consumption for travelers. Think about the industry and tourism built around images of grief. Editor: A touch macabre when you put it like that, yet fascinating to think about all those daguerreotypes and cartes de visite feeding the Victorian obsession with remembrance. So it’s beauty, craftsmanship, meditation on mortality, and shrewd marketing savvy all rolled into one lovely sepia package? Curator: Precisely! A convergence of art, technique, and, well, the market. And I suspect Brogi knew exactly what he was doing. Editor: Okay, point taken. Death and commerce are intertwined as always, still I love the photograph! I’m left marveling at how something created to contemplate what has gone could also be about creating a vision that endures.