Canal St. Martin 1860

Curator: Look at the way light renders almost mythic the vaults over the Canal St. Martin in this photograph from 1860, likely a daguerreotype, by the artist Franck. Editor: It strikes me as otherworldly, a tunnel leading to an unseen source. I see that vertical pillar of light echoing upward, reminiscent of classical depictions of heavenly ascensions. What drew Franck to this perspective, do you think? Curator: The mid-19th century was a period of intense industrialization. Franck seems to emphasize the very process of industrial creation, showcasing the labor required to produce this infrastructure. The daguerreotype, too, speaks to that early material development of capturing images. Editor: I understand that context, but look at those arches again, and how the reflections play off the water. To me they suggest a profound contemplation, even solitude. I sense a very intentional borrowing from the sublime and the romantic in this composition. It also reminds me of the underworld passages of classical mythologies... that quality of journey. Curator: True, but even myth served social function. And there's much evidence to read the waterway itself as a powerful tool. Canals supported the flow of goods and resources within the burgeoning Parisian landscape of the 19th Century. Even the lighting here points to labor – where are those lights, who is responsible for those spaces of maintenance, of ensuring production. Editor: Point well taken. But Franck doesn’t include a single figure to emphasize this activity you refer to; this feels deliberate. I mean, one can certainly contextualize this within urbanization, yet there's also that sense of timelessness. Can't it speak to both progress and that enduring human fascination with mysteries? Curator: Possibly. In the end, the creation itself becomes an image, literally, in the final process. It asks us to reflect on material consumption and to find value, in a modern vein, in infrastructural accomplishment and those that physically brought such creations into reality. Editor: An apt and convincing end-note to our musings. The symbolism lies both in the actual creation but also its ultimate impact on our imagination.