Drie meisjes spelen croquet binnenshuis before 1905

Curator: Isn't this a charming find? Here we have "Drie meisjes spelen croquet binnenshuis"—that's "Three Girls Playing Croquet Indoors"—an albumen print, very likely before 1905, by the photographer Pierre Dubreuil. Editor: My goodness, what an unusual scene! Croquet indoors? It feels wonderfully dreamlike, with the hazy quality and these girls in their white dresses floating a bit. There’s something innocent and faintly surreal about it all. Curator: Precisely! I think the albumen process contributes a lot to that ethereal mood you're sensing. This type of photography involves coating paper with egg white and silver nitrate – imagine the labor that went into achieving such delicacy! Editor: Albumen... that's so interesting! And what a commitment of resources, when we consider egg whites were also valuable commodities in the kitchen at the time. Does the artist do this process himself, I wonder, or is there a whole cottage industry around crafting the images? It definitely complicates the perception of photography as an indexical medium – more craft, less simple reflection of reality. Curator: The labour is key, absolutely. It emphasizes the deliberate artistry over mere documentation, and I imagine that ties to Impressionistic sensibilities, a defiance against traditional notions of skill in service of something novel. What about you; is that defiance evident or more about playfulness to your eye? Editor: Hmmm... both. On the one hand, you get the sense Dubreuil challenges these stuffy portrait conventions and wants us to revel in this absurd staging. And still it brings me to the materiality—all those croquet hoops painstakingly arranged… someone had to make and place all that, and each hoop might carry different social meanings too in their crafting and acquisition, wouldn’t you think? Curator: Fascinating! I hadn't thought of reading that into those elements, but it enriches it even further, don’t you agree? Thanks for reminding us that what strikes us at first as simple innocence often contains layers of interesting labor. Editor: Definitely. There is so much more than meets the eye to these so-called simple pleasures.