Gezicht op de kust bij Dawlish, gezien vanaf de golfbreker c. 1850 - 1880

This is Francis Bedford’s stereoscopic photograph, "View of the Coast at Dawlish, Seen from the Breakwater." Bedford was celebrated for landscape photography during the Victorian era, when there was great enthusiasm for images of far-off places. This one captures the stark beauty of the Devonshire coastline, through the lens of emerging photographic technologies. Consider that the rocky coastlines, like the one pictured, became sites of leisure for a burgeoning middle class, facilitated by the expansion of the railway. Bedford’s photographs were often purchased as souvenirs, mementos of one’s personal experience. The very act of viewing this stereo card was a social ritual, often done in the domestic sphere with family and friends. These stereo cards were not just images, but rather social objects that shaped cultural values, desires, and, ultimately, our understanding of place and identity. They invited viewers to project their own experiences and fantasies onto the landscape.