Kapitein Kycksen aan boord van de Fobjören 1863 - 1920

Curator: Looking at this stereo card titled "Kapitein Kycksen aan boord van de Fobjören" by Wilhelm Burger, created sometime between 1863 and 1920, I'm immediately struck by the implied narrative. A lone figure on deck, gazing intently—the visual metaphor of watchfulness, leadership, and adventure. Editor: The sheer process to produce this kind of image! Early photography combined with printmaking and distribution; it’s not just a snapshot but a complex mediation between maker, materials, and intended audience. I want to consider this photographic document within the framework of its technological and material production. Curator: Yes, it’s presented as scientific document of travel and conquest, this romantic view that travel equals adventure, as the photo implies… but I also note the repeating patterns formed by the ship’s rigging against the infinite, unknowable sea. Are those lines visual cues to create tension, uncertainty in the mind of the viewer? What is the captain looking at? Does he see what dangers, what awaits him? Editor: Precisely! Early photographs like these were tools of expansion. The albumen print itself becomes a commodity. But this piece’s specific presentation as a stereoscopic card creates a manufactured realism; inviting a sense of touch, an experience of physical closeness and immediacy, however false this immediacy actually is. Note the signs, placed onto the edges of the paper, which hint towards a massive company which allows this document to have global significance. Curator: Certainly, the detail in a photograph always contains more information than its surface lets on… The captain’s stance, even, it feels staged yet determined. And you notice the play of light and shadow, right? The captain looks as if his very soul is captured with the contact-print, staring towards a new direction, his sight our destination. He seems to be heading towards adventure, success and legacy. It looks like his own ship will give him that. Editor: The labor, time and skill used to create the ropes and all sorts of objects of material in order to keep such expedition alive cannot go unnoticed; those ropes and the man working with them serve as connection to this material and physical labor to reach success. They function both as a document and a propaganda tool; the photograph solidifying a colonial and personal agenda. Curator: Ultimately, looking at this image reveals the visual languages we tell ourselves about exploration and human progress. This man achieved its adventure due to many parts coming together to have the materials needed. It still reminds us that dreams do become reality. Editor: Yes, through the combined exploitation of the natural and human world! A layered history is present here through image, material, and making!