Stereofoto van een gezicht op de markt van Quai Saint-Antoine te Lyon before 1892

Curator: So, here we have a fascinating gelatin silver print dating from before 1892: *Stereofoto van een gezicht op de markt van Quai Saint-Antoine te Lyon* by Adolphe Louis Donnadieu. What's your first take? Editor: It's dreamy. Almost like looking at a half-remembered marketplace through a rainy window. All these hazy figures moving within a neatly constructed, geometric frame... it's as if the marketplace itself is a stage for fleeting interactions, and Donnadieu is making a claim about capturing ephemerality itself. Curator: I can see that, the geometry versus the fluid bustle. It's a street scene rendered with what feels like an Impressionist’s touch, although technically it's a photograph. The soft focus definitely contributes to that ephemeral, dreamlike quality you mentioned. Editor: Absolutely. And that relates directly to the use of visual symbols. The market has long stood as the focal point where cultures come together; there's bartering, negotiations, community engagement, shared knowledge, all within this one zone. What this stereograph brings to life is that human element. What happens to us when there is an absence of communication? In this picture, silence and lack of dialogue is what separates these humans within this crowd, or even, our own connection as humans watching. Curator: Interesting! It almost turns a familiar, vibrant setting into a study of isolation, if you focus on the lack of interaction among the blurred figures. But also consider the stereoscopic aspect. It's made to be viewed with a special device, to give the image a three-dimensional effect. Maybe it's less about detachment, more about... bringing the viewer right into that bustling space, like an unseen observer? Editor: Perhaps. Though I still come back to that initial feeling of…distance. The soft focus, the slightly faded quality of the print, it creates this emotional barrier. It becomes a picture of a place, more than it is *being* in a place. It's as though Donnadieu is intentionally trying to convey that there's also emotional and relational distance when markets like this thrive. Are people coming together with ulterior motives? Maybe so. What symbols are shown in this image and how do they create a sense of loneliness? Curator: A lonely crowd, rendered in the silver tones of memory... Well, that’s definitely given me a fresh way of looking at Donnadieu’s marketplace. Editor: It all makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Visuals stay around longer than the moment itself, like a ghost we just can't escape!