Het ploegen van een veld door paarden c. 1890 - 1910

George Hendrik Breitner captured this image, "Het ploegen van een veld door paarden," or "Plowing a Field with Horses," using photography, a relatively new medium in his time. The photograph's grainy texture and stark contrast are byproducts of the wet collodion process, an early photographic technique that involved coating a glass plate with light-sensitive chemicals. This process required significant labor in preparing and developing the plates, and the final image holds a certain indexicality – a direct trace of light, time, and physical reality. The subject matter, a farmer and team of horses tilling land, speaks to broader social issues of labor and the changing landscape during the Industrial Revolution. As cities grew, agriculture became increasingly industrialized, yet remained rooted in physical toil. Breitner's choice of photography to depict this scene challenges traditional distinctions between fine art and documentation. The photograph becomes a powerful artifact of its time, capturing the human and animal labor that sustained a rapidly changing world.