Godslamp 1865 - 1881

Editor: So, here we have Giacomo Brogi's photograph, "Godslamp," dating roughly from 1865 to 1881. It's a gelatin-silver print showing what looks like a metal lamp, or perhaps a censer, suspended by chains. What strikes me is the clear focus on this object, like an industrial catalog. What do you see in it? Curator: I see a record of materiality and craft. The gleam of the metal, captured through the gelatin-silver process, emphasizes the lamp's construction, its production. The very act of photographing and reproducing this lamp makes it a commodity, entering a cycle of consumption. Consider the labor involved – from the metalwork to the photography itself. Editor: So, you're less interested in its function, religious or otherwise, and more in how it was made and its place in a production system? Curator: Exactly. Is this “high art” or merely a photograph *of* a crafted object? The boundaries blur when we consider its production. Brogi wasn't just capturing an image, he was capturing a stage in a broader process of making and consuming. How does this seemingly devotional object also participate in a much more workaday context? Editor: That’s fascinating. I never really considered photography in terms of material production this way, instead thinking of it as the art of images. It's interesting to examine art objects as elements in a wider exchange, to understand all of its cultural exchange from creator to consumer, maker to viewer. Curator: And to recognize the labor behind even the most seemingly simple photograph or object, challenging these art/craft divisions.