[Trees] 1854 - 1857

Editor: This photograph, "[Trees]" by Thomas Keith, dating from 1854 to 1857, really draws me in. The tones are so soft, and you can almost feel the stillness of the forest. I’m curious, from your perspective, what's particularly striking about this work? Curator: For me, this image is deeply compelling as a document of material practice. Consider the wet collodion process Keith would have employed, coating glass plates, sensitizing them, and then developing them, all under demanding time constraints. The landscape isn’t merely a subject; it’s a collaborator in the photographic process. Editor: A collaborator? Could you explain that? Curator: Think about the exposure time required for this level of detail in 1850s photography. The wind, the shifting light - they all impact the final image. It moves away from the Romantic landscapes of the time, created via painting, towards something determined more by the properties of chemistry and optics. We need to think of photography less as the product of "artistic genius", but as an outcome of complex processes and technology. What impact might the commercial availability of materials have? The paper quality on the image has changed over time also. Editor: That’s fascinating. It’s like the forest itself is helping to create its own image! I never really thought of it that way, considering how material production can also be thought of as a contributing force within nature and vice-versa. Curator: Exactly! Seeing it this way brings attention to the labor of the process, not just the image itself, thereby broadening our perception. It's all part of art history. Editor: This definitely offers a completely different angle for considering photographic landscapes. Thank you.