Zij- en achteraanzicht van een schedel before 1875

Editor: Here we have "Side and Rear View of a Skull," a gelatin silver print by Simonau & Toovey, dating from before 1875. I'm struck by the starkness of it – the contrast between the scientific nature of the depiction and, well, the whole mortality thing it brings to mind. What do you make of this image, beyond the obvious, of course? Curator: Beyond the obvious, eh? I love that. Well, for starters, it whispers of photography's early ambition – that cool quest to objectively capture the world. Before Photoshop, this was their jam. But these guys, Simonau & Toovey, they're not just snapping a skull, are they? It's like they're dissecting time itself, showing us fragments. Reminds me of holding beach sand and contemplating a time long, long gone. Editor: A scientific document meets still life. So, why a skull? Was this some kind of Victorian memento mori? Curator: Bingo! Absolutely! Victorians, bless their cotton socks, were obsessed with death. But not just with being morbid about death, I think that they liked being alive at the same time. A photo like this turns the skull into a study piece, academic and oddly… intimate, maybe? What is life but the prelude to one big question? This photograph brings us as close to it as one could get at that moment. Editor: That's a beautiful way to look at it. The contrast between the 'then' of its making and the 'now' of its subject. Curator: And isn’t it amazing that photography allows that contemplation? To freeze a moment connected to mortality? What better way to see time’s double edge – what lasts and what fades. Editor: I'll definitely never look at another still life the same way again. It's really gotten me to see beyond just what's pictured in front of me. Curator: Precisely, sometimes art really looks back at you too!