[Women Stacking Carrots] 1854 - 1856

Curator: Welcome. Here we see an albumen print by Louis-Pierre-Théophile Dubois de Nehaut, tentatively titled *Women Stacking Carrots*, created sometime between 1854 and 1856. It resides here at the Metropolitan Museum. Editor: My first impression is, "Wow, that’s… round." Like peering through a very old, sepia-toned porthole into the past. There's something quite beautiful, and oddly eerie, about its symmetry. The women and that monumental stack of carrots...it’s so still and almost spectral. Curator: The photograph offers us an interesting window into 19th-century genre scenes. Group portraits like this one offer valuable insights into labor and community dynamics during this time. Photography was in its relative infancy, remember, so even "simple" scenes took meticulous planning and were highly posed. Editor: Right! That’s probably why everyone looks so... reserved. I mean, try holding a fake carrot stacking session for, what, five minutes, much less the time it probably took back then. The image presents them as archetypes almost – timeless women engaged in timeless work. You wonder what they’re really thinking! Curator: Precisely. Images like this contribute to broader discussions on labor history and the representation of working-class women in mid-19th century France. The arrangement of subjects – some at work, others seemingly supervising, offers us narrative layers. It provokes us to think of the societal dynamics that shaped not just the work, but even its photographic rendering. Editor: Yes, the arrangement… I keep coming back to that central carrot tower. It dominates the picture. It’s like some sort of surreal agricultural monument! It certainly speaks of communal effort but also seems… strangely ambitious. Is this reality or a staged fantasy? Curator: That is an excellent question and one that brings us back to the complicated politics inherent in early photographic practices. Even these seemingly quotidian scenes participated in crafting specific public narratives, both about the dignity of labor, but also about social order. Editor: This visit with Dubois de Nehaut really gets under my skin and sparks all these conflicting emotions: melancholy, awe, and slight bewilderment, even…I’m leaving this artwork pondering the story behind these ordinary folk, the making of this peculiar photograph, and the time lost and found within this sepia-toned oval. Curator: Indeed. Photography grants us proximity and a reflective distance. It’s why *Women Stacking Carrots* remains evocative to this day. Thank you for sharing your reflections.