Gezicht op Borwick Hall before 1880

Curator: Here we have "Gezicht op Borwick Hall," a landscape photograph dating back to before 1880. The work is an albumen print. Editor: The detail is striking, although there's an unmistakable solemn quality to the light and shadow, even a bit haunting perhaps? Curator: Indeed. When we consider this photograph within the framework of 19th-century class structures, it's revealing. Images of grand estates like Borwick Hall reinforced the owner’s social and economic standing. Editor: You are so right! This makes me want to look deeper at how the image was created—albumen prints required an extensive process involving coating paper with egg whites and silver nitrate. Who would have been involved in producing this, and how does that factor into a wealthy patron commissioning something like this? Curator: Exactly! We can ask: who were the individuals implicated in maintaining the lifestyle displayed, whose labour enabled such tranquility to be documented in the first place? This connects with feminist theory and power dynamics. Editor: Precisely. And consider that it may have been touched up with colored pencils in some areas too... it blurs lines. How can we fully rely on what we think of as photo 'realism', especially given the intense, manipulated labor that made it all happen? It pushes me to wonder about photography’s claim to objective truth. Curator: These spaces signify privilege and the unequal distribution of resources across the North. Thinking about photography’s role as a tool for representing power, and specifically gendered and racialised power in these structures, complicates how we perceive landscape photography. Editor: Examining photography, this seemingly neutral process of reproduction, unveils the power structures interwoven within landscape, materials, and consumption during the late 19th century. Curator: Yes, and even now. When considering the contemporary socio-political contexts that emerge from places like this, thinking of wealth disparity for instance, these works become much more important. Editor: Looking at this photograph, the sheer labor involved reveals social layers we rarely pause to consider; hopefully visitors will appreciate those often-hidden stories now as well.