Montage van twee landschappen, berkenbomen en een heide before 1903

These photographic landscapes were montaged by Elma Stoltz. Look closely, and you can see the hand of the artist in the darkroom, where a photograph becomes an artwork through a painstaking manual process. From a certain perspective, photography is all about the capture, the decisive moment. But this work reminds us that, especially in the early 20th century, getting a compelling image involved an enormous amount of work after the shutter closed. The artist would have been intensely focused on the chemistry involved, and on the manipulation of light. By combining two different landscape views into one, Stoltz is pushing the medium towards surrealism and expression. The image reminds us that photography, like other forms of image production, may be understood as a craft. Appreciating the materiality and the making of this artwork allows us to appreciate its true innovation and its place in the broader field of visual culture.