Paleis tegenover het Dogenpaleis te Venetië c. 1850 - 1900

Carlo Naya made this photograph of a palace in Venice sometime in the 19th century, by using a process that was still quite new at the time. Photography occupies a curious position relative to craft, as it relies heavily on mechanical and chemical processes, while also allowing for artistic expression. In this print, the surface texture isn't just a result of the scene Naya captured. It’s also a consequence of the way light-sensitive materials interact with each other. It is a work of chemistry and optics. What’s interesting here is how photography democratized the image. Think of the number of hours it would have taken a painter to render this scene, compared to the relative ease of producing this photographic print. Although there are plenty of aesthetic decisions in this image, the labour involved is of a different character to older forms of image-making. So, when considering this photograph, we can think about how it reflects shifts in labour, technology, and artistic expression that reshaped the 19th century.