Gezicht op het Fort van Sisteron 1903

Curator: Before us is "Gezicht op het Fort van Sisteron," a photograph taken around 1903, currently residing in the Rijksmuseum. Editor: What strikes me is the overall lightness, almost ethereal. The mountain looming behind the fortress gives a real sense of scale, a touch of silent drama, really. Curator: The photographic process itself is interesting. Think about the material constraints: the camera technology, the photographic paper of the time. How did that impact the way landscape and architecture were portrayed, perceived, and then consumed by a growing audience? The tones, the contrast, all results of both intention and technological limits. Editor: Absolutely, it’s a product of its time. But for me, it's also about feeling dwarfed. Makes you ponder what kind of stories that castle could tell if the walls could talk! Imagine all that's been fought over in that place! It could all make for an amazing poem! Curator: And we can think about the relationship of labor to it, from those quarrying stone for the citadel to the photographer painstakingly developing plates in their darkroom. What social strata are being represented? What remains hidden, inaccessible in this idealized view? It’s as much about the absent figures as the visible walls. Editor: You're making me see it in such a tangible light. Maybe it isn’t that scary; maybe I feel like that fortress offers safety rather than an unwelcoming and overpowering stature of a strong hold. A place I can relate to, a real home! Curator: Well, that intersection is really fascinating – it makes us question, you know, whose home? Who gets to feel safe and at peace there? What purposes were intended for it and did its function fulfill or betray its purposes? That is a key issue of analyzing it in connection to consumption. Editor: So true, such complex connections. Makes you see photographs in a different light after that analysis!