Gezicht op Thun en het meer van Thun, Zwitserland before 1899

Jean Moeglé, who lived from 1853 to 1938, created this photograph of Thun and its lake in Switzerland. Moeglé worked during a period when photography was still finding its place alongside painting and sculpture. It demanded a great deal of technical expertise. The process involved coating glass plates with light-sensitive emulsion, exposing them in the camera, and then developing them in a darkroom. Each step required careful attention to detail, and the final image could be affected by everything from the temperature of the chemicals to the quality of the lens. Moeglé’s choice of subject, a picturesque view of a Swiss town nestled against the Alps, reflects the growing popularity of tourism at the time. The photograph itself, as a relatively inexpensive and reproducible object, could be seen as part of this commercialization of leisure. By emphasizing the labor and skill involved in the photographic process, we can appreciate Moeglé's work not just as a representation of a place, but also as a material object with its own story to tell.