Weg met door ezels getrokken karren before 1920

Editor: This black and white photograph, "Weg met door ezels getrokken karren," or "Away with Donkey Carts," made before 1920 by Donald Mennie, possesses such a melancholic stillness. The low angle and the willow tree drooping into the frame give it a heavy atmosphere. What symbols or stories do you see present here? Curator: The image ripples with a layered tension between the old world and the new. The very title declares a kind of rejection or revolution of existing, traditional ways, specifically targeting animal labor. The composition places the viewer very low, nearly on the ground. Does that placement tell you something? Editor: I suppose being low makes the viewer seem… powerless? Like these working people have no influence over being forced to make way for new advancements? Curator: Precisely. The presence of the donkey carts, though small, is weighty. The animals become symbols of tradition. Consider that these animals and drivers are also traversing toward an unseen future; these figures suggest continuity and adaptation even within the face of a major change. And even more personally to our perception, doesn’t the soft focus lend a feeling of longing for a world rapidly vanishing? Editor: That's so interesting to consider! The soft focus does create a certain nostalgic quality. The donkeys almost disappear into the shadows. Curator: And don’t you find it telling that the pictorialist style, a photographic movement often embracing sentimentality and symbolism, is employed here? It elevates this seemingly simple scene to something more resonant, suggesting anxieties around industrialization and the shift in social structures. The entire photo acts as an exploration of societal shift using donkeys and trees as potent emblems. Editor: This photograph is way more charged than I first thought. The pictorialist approach with such culturally loaded objects is definitely thought provoking.