Snubbing. Clear that line, quick 1886

Curator: This is a stereoscopic print, a photograph printed on silver, by Henry Hamilton Bennett, entitled “Snubbing. Clear that line, quick”, dating from 1886. Editor: My immediate impression is the dynamism in this staged scene, but also the sense of isolation despite the presence of others; the muted tones almost wash them away in place. Curator: Notice the clear depiction of the raftmen set against the verdant backdrop. The interplay of light and shadow provides an intriguing study in texture. The stern raftman is facing away, the lines of his suspenders pointing to a stoic character. There’s a visual hierarchy here—with the logs seeming like an afterthought. Editor: I find myself considering how Bennett, working in Kilbourn City, Wisconsin, marketed this kind of image. Here he’s romanticizing a laborer as the common man through “the Camera’s Story of Raftman’s life” that the copy alludes to, even if we can only presume what daily life must have looked like for the worker and consumer of art. This is at the height of expansion in America, no less, which also shaped Bennett’s landscape work. Curator: But observe the careful positioning, the man’s feet near the edge of the platform, the way the ropes coil to create visual anchors. Bennett meticulously structured the composition, making strong use of diagonals to activate the space. Also, these lines give the print some of the urgency hinted at in the title. There’s great attention to form and balance—each element echoing and reinforcing the other. Editor: Right, and even the photograph itself, produced en masse, underscores the relationship between industrial progress, leisure, and nature; the “Wanderings among the Wonders and Beauties of Wisconsin” copy alludes to the rising number of middle-class visitors. Ultimately it transforms ruggedness into a packaged commodity. Curator: Your socio-political framing certainly enriches the analysis. But, in the end, it's about his successful employment of depth, texture, and compositional techniques in this very interesting print. Editor: Fair enough, it's truly intriguing to view Bennett’s “Snubbing” as both a formal exercise and a window into 19th-century socio-economic structures and environmental perceptions.