Gezicht op een sociëteit te Sisi before 1897

Curator: This is an albumen print dating to before 1897, titled “Gezicht op een sociëteit te Sisi” by Christiaan Johan Neeb. It depicts a building, a 'sociëteit', in Sisi. Editor: It looks very still and almost ethereal; the monochrome tones make the buildings seem like spectres from the past. The detail is amazing but softened, perhaps a trace of mist softens the shapes. I immediately feel a melancholic distance. Curator: Melancholy feels right, especially when we consider the tradition of albumen printing. The process itself is complex and reliant on specific materials: the paper support, the egg whites for the coating... each part revealing the labor inherent in its creation. These albumen prints were luxury items, popular amongst wealthy tourists and colonial administrators documenting exotic locales. Editor: It’s the 'sociëteit’ element that stands out to me. These were social clubs, especially in colonies such as the Dutch East Indies. Examining it closely, one can see these clubs often served as power hubs where hierarchies of race and class were subtly enforced. They signified Western influence within an Eastern landscape. Curator: Exactly. And the image participates in a complex relationship with that setting. The soft focus romanticizes the foreign context while reinforcing existing power dynamics. Think about the use of the lens: how it might frame, literally and figuratively, the relationship between observer and observed. Editor: Looking at how this particular image may have served as an artifact of that period, reproduced and consumed. Was this printed in larger runs or as an isolated artwork, something produced by a hobbyist using albumen to record a specific point in history and reflect specific social conditions? Curator: It is quite haunting when considered as a reflection of social hierarchies through an orientalist gaze. One begins to consider what cultural weight that photography once had, and what the reverberations of that mean for us now. Editor: Indeed, looking closely at the material composition offers us more clues about the past—both through the print itself and what this particular aesthetic sought to embody.