Gezicht op de vijver in Artis in Amsterdam 1860 - 1890

Editor: So, this gelatin silver print, "Gezicht op de vijver in Artis in Amsterdam" – or View of the Pond in Artis Zoo in Amsterdam – by Andries Jager, dating from sometime between 1860 and 1890… it’s just incredibly still. The reflections are almost more present than the actual structures they mirror. What draws your eye when you look at it? Curator: It's funny you say that, because for me it's all about those hidden stories whispering beneath the surface of that glassy pond. It makes me wonder, what did it *smell* like there? What little dramas were unfolding between the reeds, utterly lost to us now? You know, those blurry edges, the slight sepia tone… it's not just a landscape, it's a portal to lost moments. I mean, doesn't it make you want to reach out and scoop up a handful of the past? Editor: Definitely! It’s fascinating how photography at this time was capturing a fabricated ‘nature,’ so different from, say, painters working in Realism. Is Jager maybe engaging with this tension? Curator: I think you’ve hit on something very true here. In the act of capturing this ‘fabricated’ nature, Jager shows the very human desire to arrange the natural world. How much are we actually seeing *nature* versus a human controlled and curated vision? Maybe it makes us realize all visions of the ‘natural’ are filtered. Editor: That tension is amazing. It is like Jager captures something really transient, but he also communicates human manipulation. It changes how I see photography. Curator: Indeed. It shows the power of quiet observation and how photography can allow us to capture even a whisper of human will within an otherwise ‘natural’ setting.