Edinburgh, from the Calton Hill c. mid 19th century

This stereoscopic image of Edinburgh from Calton Hill was made by G. W. Wilson using albumen silver print, a process that involves coating paper with a layer of egg white and silver nitrate, and then printing from a glass negative. The albumen process yields incredibly sharp details, as you can see in the architecture, and a rich tonal range. The faintly sepia tone adds an atmospheric quality to the vista. The making of this image involved considerable labor, from preparing the photographic materials to the physical act of capturing the scene. In that sense, it's not so different than any work of craft. Wilson and other photographers mass-produced images like this for eager consumers, eager to have a keepsake from Edinburgh or to simply experience a far-away place from their own home. It is a tangible reminder of how photography democratized image-making and distribution, prefiguring our own image-saturated world today. It collapses distinctions between art and craft.