Rivierbedding met rotsen en palmen c. 1880 - 1900

Curator: Immediately striking is the almost ethereal quality to this gelatin-silver print of a riverbed, perhaps somewhere in North Africa. Editor: The grainy texture and subdued tones definitely give it a feeling of distance, both in time and place. There’s an incredible range of stone here, suggesting both fluvial processes and larger geological forces. Curator: This is "Rivierbedding met rotsen en palmen" or "Riverbed with rocks and palms," by Étienne Neurdein, taken sometime between 1880 and 1900. Neurdein was known for his photographs of North Africa, very much working within the visual traditions of Orientalism. Editor: That explains the romantic aura. I’m curious about how this print would have been experienced back then. The landscape is interesting, there is clear focus on the rocks and plant life here and that makes me think, what level of craft was used to capture such a diverse environment? Curator: The circulation of such images reinforced existing colonial power dynamics, exoticizing the landscape and its people for European consumption, solidifying a vision of "the Orient" as fundamentally "other" to the West. They spoke more about European fantasies of North Africa. Editor: That's disheartening to consider. And that gelatin-silver process itself would have been relatively new, enabling finer details, but requiring specialized knowledge to produce the physical piece that is held within the photographs’ cultural contexts and interpretations. Curator: Precisely, images like these are deeply intertwined with social and political power structures. They served as visual propaganda, legitimizing colonial expansion through an alluring representation. The medium itself was being used in service of these colonial fantasies. Editor: That gives this landscape, this document of a time and place, a really unsettling charge. The serene beauty masks complex layers of production and political context. Curator: Exactly. It's a stark reminder that the aesthetic and the political are often inseparable. Editor: Yes, understanding that really alters how one experiences the image today. Thank you.