Nubian Sakkieh, or Water Wheel 1856

Robert Murray made this photograph of a Nubian Sakkieh, or water wheel, sometime in the late 19th century. It's a simple albumen print, a process involving paper coated with egg white and silver nitrate, then exposed to light through a negative. Notice how the sepia tones and soft focus render the scene. Murray wasn’t using the high-definition photography we expect today. This aesthetic choice invites us to consider the work involved in constructing this rural water-lifting device. We see roughly hewn logs supporting the structure, and thatching used to control the flow. The whole thing is powered by animal labor. Photographs like this were often made for colonial administrators and others interested in understanding how labor was organized in distant parts of the world. Murray has given us something more, though. He's captured the ingenuity and hard work embedded in this everyday technology, bridging art and the realities of life in Nubia.