"The Knolls" c. 1883 - 1888

Curator: This image, "The Knolls," is a gelatin-silver print created by M.P. Warner sometime between 1883 and 1888. What’s your initial reaction to it? Editor: It feels like a hazy memory, doesn't it? The muted tones and soft focus create this gentle, almost dreamlike atmosphere. Makes me want to curl up with a worn copy of Walden. Curator: Indeed! The image aligns with Pictorialism, which sought to elevate photography to art by emulating painting through soft focus and atmospheric effects. But it's important to note, these carefully constructed scenes of rural America often whitewashed complex socio-political issues regarding land ownership, agricultural labor, and the displacement of Indigenous peoples. Editor: Absolutely. There's a stillness to it that's both alluring and unsettling. Those neatly ordered rows of what look like haystacks give a sense of cultivated harmony, yet also suggest human intervention on the landscape. Whose harmony are we looking at, I wonder? And at whose expense? The Hudson River School influence seems undeniable. Curator: Definitely a key context. And that particular aesthetic served particular purposes: romanticizing westward expansion and promoting an idealised vision of the American landscape – frequently obscuring uncomfortable truths. Think of it as visual manifest destiny, a landscape cleared for new inhabitants. The knolls themselves, those low rounded hills on the horizon, almost seem like watchful guardians over this scene. Editor: It is so interesting that you perceive those distant knolls as protective; for me, they invoke a silent critique. But this push-pull dynamic speaks to the image's complexity—it allows room for different perspectives, and acknowledges nature as being more than one idea. The choice of gelatin-silver print intensifies this historical feel. Curator: I think that duality makes the photograph so fascinating. It prompts a re-evaluation of our romanticization of the past and encourages an understanding of the intricate forces behind such apparently bucolic depictions. This photograph serves as both a mirror and a window. Editor: Precisely. "The Knolls" urges us to look closer, to see beyond the initial tranquility, and consider the complex histories woven into the land. It leaves me pondering about land rights.