Gezicht op Corpach met de Ben Nevis 1865 - 1875

Editor: This is "Gezicht op Corpach met de Ben Nevis" by James Valentine, created sometime between 1865 and 1875. It’s currently housed in the Rijksmuseum. There’s such a stillness to this photograph, despite all the details – the boat, the buildings, the majestic mountain. What do you see in this piece, especially considering the time it was created? Curator: I see a document embedded within a very specific colonial gaze. Scotland was being heavily romanticized during this period. Consider the Highland Clearances and the concurrent popularity of "Balmoralism"—the Royal Family's adoption of Scotland as a leisure space. The image aestheticizes a landscape fraught with forced migration, eviction, and cultural suppression. Editor: So, the beauty we see is potentially masking a harsh reality? Curator: Precisely. This photograph participates in creating a narrative of Scottish landscape as picturesque and unpopulated, obscuring the social realities for the indigenous population. How do you think this romanticizing affected the Scottish identity? Editor: That’s a sobering thought. It makes me reconsider how photography was used then. I guess I viewed these images before as just beautiful landscapes and architectural records. Curator: And that’s the trick of a successful cultural project! To make power structures appear natural or just “beautiful,” thereby diminishing their underlying ideology. Editor: Wow, I definitely have a new perspective on how to view historical photographs. Thanks! Curator: And I have been challenged to further explore my assumptions about how we teach and interpret art!