Carrière 1850 - 1853

This is an undated photograph called 'Carrière' by Charles Marville. It shows a quarry, probably near Paris, with a cart in the foreground and figures working in the earth. Marville was employed as the official photographer of Paris in the 1860s. At this time, the city was undergoing massive reconstruction. Many saw this modernisation as progress, but others, like Marville, documented the social costs of industrial expansion. Marville's photographs raise questions about what is lost in the name of progress. Where once there was an open field and forest, we now see a barren industrial landscape, a man-made scar on the earth. We can research his other photographs of Paris, city archives, and accounts of the time to understand Marville's views on the transformation of the city. The meaning we ascribe to art is never fixed, it depends on its social and institutional context.