Golden gate park at San Francisco after 3

Editor: This photograph, "Golden Gate Park at San Francisco," taken sometime after 1903 by Geldolph Adriaan Kessler, has such a wonderfully peaceful feeling to it. The tones are soft, almost sepia-like, highlighting the architecture of the greenhouse against the organic park landscape. What stands out to you? Curator: What immediately captures my attention is the albumen print process itself. The very means of its production speaks volumes. Kessler, with his careful selection of materials and technique, participates in a very specific discourse around photography as art. Consider the labor involved, the social standing suggested by access to photographic equipment and the leisure to create. Editor: So you're saying the materials themselves tell a story beyond the image? Curator: Precisely. Think about albumen – egg whites! What does that choice of binder, applied to paper, communicate about art and craft? It challenges the clean division between them. It transforms photography from mere reproduction to something painstakingly constructed, like painting. Where was the albumen sourced, who prepared it, how does its fragile materiality contrast with the imposing architecture depicted? Editor: That’s fascinating, I hadn’t considered the process so deeply. So instead of just seeing a pretty park scene, you’re seeing… the Victorian-era photographic industry? Curator: Exactly! It asks us to consider who could afford to make art, who had the leisure, and what materials were available to them. What kind of statement do you think Kessler was making, choosing such a process for a landscape, which would typically denote the sublime? Editor: Wow, I’m starting to see how the production choices elevate the artwork. I’ll definitely pay more attention to materials from now on. Curator: Excellent! Thinking through materials leads to questioning the wider implications of the photograph.