Gezelschap op open plek in bos c. 1860 - 1870

Curator: Adolphe Block’s “Gezelschap op open plek in bos,” taken sometime in the 1860s or 70s. Immediately, the mood strikes me as so… contained. Editor: Contained is an interesting word. To me, it feels constructed, doesn’t it? A meticulously staged arrangement, almost like a tableau vivant using people as props. Look at how the photographer arranges them – there's almost no spontaneity. Curator: Precisely. There is something utterly… deliberate about this scene, even if the subjects are intended to look as though they are having a relaxed gathering, some sort of picnic or plein-air luncheon in the woods. You can see in the child sitting, off on their own on the grass. Almost as though they've placed that little girl or boy in their place to remind viewers of this natural setting. The landscape's not at all central, either. I'd say this photograph is staged like a portrait instead of as a document of how people were really behaving back then. Editor: It certainly highlights a bourgeois desire to be associated with the leisure class! These images weren’t created in a vacuum, you know. How easy, then, do we suppose it would be to organize all of these individuals at once on short notice and request their most extravagant belongings in tandem? We would do well to understand that access was required to manufacture scenes of that order, no doubt. The picnic basket, the fabrics... each piece had to be produced by laborers somewhere. We must think of the production process involved. Curator: Agreed! One thing I also find fascinating is this kind of forced domesticity when translated to this context. If we compare, say, a Renaissance oil painting of a pastoral landscape that includes domestic motifs, versus Block's rendition in this genre with his photography, both rely on extremely expensive means and resources to render. So perhaps Block is asking viewers to engage critically in that tradition itself. Editor: Good point. And in what ways do new mediums shift existing art structures? It becomes less of simply emulating the classics. Curator: So in closing, perhaps this is less about simply recording and more about shaping perceptions. Creating this fiction. Editor: Well, next time I have lunch outdoors, I'll bring a team of stylists. I see your point.