Boot op het land (vermoedelijk) te Great Yarmouth before 1890

This photogravure, likely made in Great Yarmouth by Peter Henry Emerson, captures a boat on land. Emerson was fascinated by the lives of working people. Photogravure, a printmaking process using photographic images, allowed him to document them with incredible tonal subtlety. The process begins with a copper plate, coated with a light-sensitive gelatin tissue, exposed to a film positive, and then etched in an acid bath. The varying depths of the etch determine the amount of ink the plate holds, creating an image with rich variations of tone. The image's social context is important: Great Yarmouth was, and still is, a working port. The grounded boat suggests the physical labor that sustains the local economy. Photogravure, as used by Emerson, walks a fine line between photography, a relatively new medium in the late 19th century, and printmaking, an established art form with its own traditions and hierarchies. Emerson elevates a scene of everyday labor into a work of art, using a painstaking process that mirrors the labor he depicts.