Gezicht op een stoomschip op de Oostzee richting Rügen 1889 - 1893

Curator: This gelatin-silver print, entitled "Gezicht op een stoomschip op de Oostzee richting Rügen," capturing a steamship sailing the Baltic, was created by Willem Frederik Piek Jr. sometime between 1889 and 1893. It's a little sepia-toned dream. Editor: It evokes this melancholic serenity. The ship seems almost ghostly, doesn’t it? Like a memory fading at the edges. It definitely speaks to a bygone era, where travel was a grand, slow affair. Curator: Absolutely, and in those days, a ship like that would have represented such optimism, progress and a desire to see new places. I wonder who was aboard and what dreams they carried with them, on this 'view of a steamship toward Rugen', as the title says. What intrigues you most about its materiality, the gelatin-silver process perhaps? Editor: Well, the process itself is so revealing of the social and economic moment, I'd say. Silver, like the ship itself, represents technological advance, the move toward faster trade. But making this image, so much time in the darkroom with the alchemical magic of developing—the sheer labour embedded in fixing one moment into being. This tells us much about access to art, about who can take a moment to slow down, consider a view, make an art object of it. Curator: That slowing down allows one to contemplate the scene. The water looks so placid. I’m also drawn to the composition – the ship positioned slightly off-center lends it a dynamic feel. As if it's actively moving. There’s a romantic touch too, isn’t there? A feeling of adventure. Editor: The romance is definitely there. It romanticizes production: the hard labour required to produce the shiny steamship. Curator: A necessary element. Overall, viewing "Gezicht op een stoomschip op de Oostzee richting Rügen", one is able to take into consideration the technological progress it captured with reverence and admiration for the period in which it was produced. Editor: Precisely, we must understand not only the sea, but the ship's metal and the darkroom chemicals to truly see Piek's vision.