Gezicht op marinegebouw in Bremen 1890

This photograph of the Marine Building in Bremen was taken by Louis Koch around 1890. It's a reminder that photography, despite its seeming transparency, is always a constructed thing. Look at the way the building, though impressive in its scale and classical details, is presented as a commodity. It’s meant to convey the wealth and ambition of Bremen as a port city. Consider the laborious process involved in early photography. Each print was a careful orchestration of chemistry, light, and skilled darkroom practice, and a costly process. This print would have been circulated widely, a physical token of Bremen's industrial might. Next time you see an old photograph, think about all the hands that touched it, and the complex layering of materials, processes, and social context embedded in its very being. It's a piece of history, materialized.