Stallen van Salomon in Jeruzalem c. 1867 - 1895

This photograph of Solomon's Stables in Jerusalem was made by Maison Bonfils. The salted paper print, a popular technique in the mid-19th century, gives this image a soft, almost painterly quality. It's a process that involves coating paper with a salt solution, then with silver nitrate, making it light-sensitive. The tonal range is beautiful. What makes this image particularly interesting is how it captures a space constructed through immense manual labor. Solomon's Stables, believed to have been built to expand the Temple Mount platform, involved quarrying, transporting, and meticulously placing massive stones. This was all done long before mechanization, relying on human and animal power. The photograph itself, though a product of a different kind of labor, serves as a document of that earlier construction process. It prompts us to consider the layers of work embedded within the image, from the ancient construction to the 19th-century photographic practice. Recognizing the value of the tangible.