Twee jonge brieflezende vrouwen c. 1855 - 1870

Art Historian: Editor: Editor: So, here we have "Two Young Women Reading a Letter" by Loescher & Petsch, dating from around 1855 to 1870. It's a photographic print on, it seems, aged paper. There's a very soft, delicate feeling to it. I'm curious, what do you see when you look at this piece? Art Historian: What strikes me is the way this photographic print allows us to consider the industrialization of image-making in relation to social practices. How was photography changing concepts and ideas of identity, documentation and ultimately production and dissemination? Think about the means by which this image would have been circulated. It's a stereoscopic image. Do you have a sense of how that changes its value or utility? Editor: That's interesting, I didn’t consider the duplication. How would that impact its social context, knowing it would have been produced and replicated on this scale? It makes it feel almost… mass produced? Art Historian: Precisely. Consider the rise of photography studios like Loescher & Petsch during this era, churning out images for a burgeoning middle class. These studios were essentially factories of image production, employing various skilled laborers. Are these pictures documenting authentic realities or perhaps fabricating them? Editor: I see what you mean. It's about manufactured representation, then, isn't it? Not necessarily capturing truth but making an object for consumption. Something made and purchased. Art Historian: Indeed. So, thinking about photography as a commercial venture, we are prompted to contemplate what values were circulating? How were they being disseminated to this burgeoning middle class, how did people view themselves? I invite you to reflect on the social role and meaning making that is embedded within the commercial distribution, utility and value of these images. Editor: This has been really helpful! I would have totally overlooked thinking about its manufacture and purpose. Art Historian: A focus on process always brings an added perspective!