Gezicht op een huis in Halton-with-Aughton 1877

Curator: What a dreamy, almost ghostly image. It's a landscape shot, primarily a very old manor, almost consumed by surrounding trees. The soft focus and monochrome palette really give it an otherworldly feel. Editor: I find it captivating, this gelatin-silver print from 1877 titled "Gezicht op een huis in Halton-with-Aughton", made by H.M. & Co. Wright. Looking at the process and materials is crucial here. The gelatin silver process itself signifies a specific moment in the history of photography, one that democratized image making through industrialized production. Curator: Exactly, the technology informed how it’s viewed, but more than just access, it’s crucial to look at who it empowered and how this image participates in existing social narratives. Landscape paintings are so often tied to the gentrification of property and exploitation, is that playing a role in this image? How does the commodification of property, and perhaps erasure of marginalized groups through that practice affect the tone of nostalgia? Editor: I appreciate you pointing out that inherent tension. Because looking closer, I see the scale and formality of the building suggesting something about class and land ownership, how photography in its industrial stage reinforces or reflects already extant conditions of the art world itself. You have labor in constructing the image itself but you also are showing a life lived in material abundance due to labor performed by others. Curator: I think we should emphasize the cultural contexts in which photographic images of properties, and homes such as this were viewed during this time. To not be drawn away from how it ties into colonial aspirations. But what do you feel overall from viewing this photograph? Editor: For me, there is definitely the air of preservation here. Almost as if they were keen on producing some material record as time faded or was replaced by new developments and structures. How does this landscape speak to themes of cultural identity or social change do you believe? Curator: By documenting that particular moment in time, the process inherently selects and excludes various intersectional ideas. It prompts an emotional experience within viewers, making them analyze its historical meaning, while considering cultural constructs about beauty, power and memory. Editor: That really brings another level of meaning to the image. Thinking about the labor in producing these industrial images of leisure also underscores our need to keep analyzing and keep understanding social processes involved in the most quotidian objects we overlook.