Kapel van de Heilige Maagd in de Abdij van Einsiedeln, Zwitserland 1862 - 1870

This stereograph shows the Chapel of the Virgin in Einsiedeln Abbey, Switzerland, as captured by Pierre Joseph Rossier. Produced using photography, a relatively new medium at the time, the photograph offers a glimpse into a sacred space. Yet, the photographic process itself deserves attention. The laborious preparation of glass plate negatives, the careful exposure and development—all this reflects the craft inherent in early photography. Rossier was a master of this craft, and understood how to capture the texture, form and light of a space as ornate as the chapel. This would have been a prized souvenir, and implies a growth in tourism at the time. With the advent of photography, views like this became ever more readily available. Considering the labour, both in the chapel’s original construction and Rossier’s photograph of it, we see how the camera captures not just an image, but a moment in a longer continuum of making. It reminds us that even in an age of mechanical reproduction, craft and labor remain central.