Opgezette megascops en een bonte bosuil 1871 - 1876

Curator: This albumen print from 1871-1876, entitled "Opgezette megascops en een bonte bosuil", is attributed to William Notman. Editor: What a melancholic mood it conjures. The stark albumen print captures these owls with such seriousness; their button eyes stare out, fixing you with a strangely sorrowful gaze. Curator: Right, and the work itself sits within a specific context of natural history documentation. This image isn't merely an artistic representation; it's deeply rooted in the 19th-century scientific endeavor to classify and document the natural world. Museums often used photography like this to archive specimens. Editor: Which brings to mind a kind of... staged naturalness? They're perched on what seems like meticulously arranged shrubbery, making the whole tableau both life-like and unsettling artificial at the same time. As though nature needed our help to be properly witnessed. Curator: Indeed. Photography provided unprecedented means of producing ostensibly objective records. The act of preserving, classifying, and cataloging served an imperial drive for scientific dominance. It reflects power structures in viewing the natural world and understanding visual culture. Editor: Exactly. Thinking about power, those slightly darkened edges around the photograph emphasize how staged this "natural" image truly is. Curator: This work provides insights into our social and scientific aspirations. William Notman had multiple successful studios throughout Canada. This gives an image of institutionalized power, that influenced popular photography, natural history, and portraiture. Editor: It truly captures a moment caught between science and a strange sort of poetry. Stately, if unsettling—as much about our view of nature as the owls themselves. A melancholic reflection of our impulse to catalog everything around us.