Photographic Facsimiles of the Remains of the Epistles of Clement of Rome. Made from the Unique Copy Preserved in the Codex Alexandrinus. 1856

Editor: Here we have Roger Fenton's "Photographic Facsimiles of the Remains of the Epistles of Clement of Rome," made in 1856. It's an albumen print of what appears to be a very old book. What strikes me most is the fragility of it, like a ghostly echo of something that used to be whole. What do you see in this work? Curator: Ghosts, exactly! It’s so Victorian, isn’t it? The Victorians were absolutely haunted by the past, obsessed with preserving it – and altering it, truth be told, through copious amounts of artistic license. Fenton’s photograph captures that sentiment perfectly, doesn't it? He offers us access to this ancient manuscript—but on his terms. It’s romantic, sepia-toned, utterly dreamy and idealized in its decay. He's selling an aura, a *feeling* more than pure historical fact. What feeling does the artifact evoke for you? Editor: It does feel curated, deliberately aged. I feel this melancholic beauty, but almost staged, not necessarily 'authentic', if that makes sense? Curator: Yes! "Authenticity" is a slippery thing, especially in photography, even back then! Fenton makes us confront our own longing for history and, perhaps more profoundly, its inevitable disintegration. And think about it: he used cutting-edge technology, photography, to capture the vestiges of a very old one! The irony! It reminds you to appreciate beauty within the wear and tear doesn’t it? Editor: That makes total sense. So it's not really *about* the letters, but our relationship with the past? Curator: Precisely! That is where true beauty lies: our interpretation of lost media and history. Editor: I never considered it that way! It’s more about us than the Clement of Rome. Curator: Art often is, wouldn’t you agree?