Place du Gouvernement en de Djama'a al-Djedid, Algiers 1863 - 1882

Curator: Hello, and welcome. Today, we're looking at an albumen print photograph taken sometime between 1863 and 1882 by Claude-Joseph Portier. The title is "Place du Gouvernement en de Djama'a al-Djedid, Algiers." Editor: Wow, there’s something ethereal about this scene. The light feels both sharp and diffused, like looking at a dream, but anchored by the very solid structures. And the sheer tonality...it's beautiful! It almost feels like an abandoned film set or a foggy memory, and those miniature figures really make it magical! Curator: Portier was known for his landscapes and architectural studies, especially in North Africa. During that time, Algeria was under French colonial rule, making images like these important visual documents reflecting political power. The "Place du Gouvernement," or Government Square, becomes a key site, and the Djama'a al-Djedid Mosque, a focal point. Note the almost clinical composition, serving documentary purposes. Editor: It does, it carries this clinical precision, but to me, the ghostly quality overrides all that. Look at how everything’s slightly…blurry. Are those shadows intentional? What looks like bustling town square seems still like it’s a stage that’s set, before anyone arrived. Maybe because we have modern expectations about image clarity that's clouding my reaction to a more immediate experience! I love how we get lost in those early photographic journeys. Curator: Exactly. The albumen print process, popular at the time, involved coating paper with egg white and then photosensitizing it. This gave the image a glossy surface and enhanced detail, but also could create unique aging effects like you see here. Remember too, Portier’s choice of subject would also signal France’s presence in Algiers: portraying civic life in tandem with its Islamic architectural treasures would speak directly to its governance policies there. Editor: So you think this is PR of the colonialists! Makes total sense, even with its beauty and sense of place it has something deeply unsettling behind it... I mean this image transports you to another time...a lost Algiers of French influence and local co-existence that wasn't as balanced as it appeared in the lens of a camera? Curator: It highlights, but also complicates it. While beautiful, photographs like this are always implicated in power structures of that era, consciously or unconsciously shaping perceptions both then and now. They open historical debates while showcasing an image from another period. Editor: Beautiful and complicated: perfect summation! So this is what beauty really is? I am so grateful to have you guide me through these times! Thank you for that historical eye and sharing! Curator: The pleasure was all mine! Let us carry on now, towards the next wonder!