Jérusalem, Porte de David, Vue extérieure 1854 - 1859

Auguste Salzmann made this photograph of the exterior of the Gate of David in Jerusalem using the salted paper process. This early photographic technique involved coating paper with a salt solution, then with silver nitrate, making it sensitive to light. The resulting print has a soft, textured quality, emphasizing the rough-hewn stones of the gate. Look closely and you can see the individual marks of the stonemasons who originally built this structure. Each stone was carefully cut and placed, a testament to human labor and skill. Saltzmann's choice of this process, and the way he has framed his composition, makes us consider not only the architecture but also the act of documentation itself. In this case, photography can be seen as a means of cataloging and knowing the world, just as surely as the original building of the gate was an act of claiming space and authority. Considering materials and process expands our appreciation of the photograph and the imposing architecture it depicts.