Paris Nouveau c. 1875

This stereograph, titled "Paris Nouveau," was produced by an anonymous photographer, using photographic techniques to capture a scene in Paris. The photograph is printed on card stock, and mounted as two nearly identical images side by side to create a three-dimensional effect when viewed through a stereoscope. The materiality of this stereograph – the card stock, the photographic emulsion, and the printing process – speaks to a moment when photography was becoming increasingly accessible, contributing to mass culture and visual experience. This image is, in a way, a mass-produced souvenir, a token of modern life. The creation of stereographs like "Paris Nouveau" relied on the division of labor and industrial production, where skilled photographers, printers, and publishers collaborated to produce these images on a large scale. In this context, the stereograph reflects the intersection of art, commerce, and technology, and the evolving relationship between image-making and capitalism. This challenges our conventional ideas of the "artist."