Gezicht op Iona Abbey en St. Oran's chapel 1865 - 1875

Curator: Welcome. Let's examine "Gezicht op Iona Abbey en St. Oran's Chapel," a photograph from somewhere between 1865 and 1875 by James Valentine, part of the Rijksmuseum collection. Editor: A first impression—a faded but powerful image! I am really drawn to the textures, especially how the light interacts with the stone walls. You can almost feel the age and the weather embedded in the materials. Curator: Absolutely. Iona Abbey was, of course, an important religious and political center, its significance amplified as Scottish national identity was being constructed and negotiated during the Victorian period. Editor: Speaking of construction, the choice of albumen print for a site-specific image tells us a lot about Victorian industry. This photograph would have been part of an easily reproducible series available to the rapidly expanding tourist industry. Curator: That’s right. Demand fueled production. Tourism made places like Iona—and the visual representations of these places—sites of pilgrimage. And the popularity of these photographs arguably shaped a shared national narrative about Scotland. Editor: Indeed. But what I find captivating is the tangible quality the process lends to the image. Each print, while reproducible, is still unique in its tonal range and surface qualities due to variations in coating and development, reminding us that this isn’t just about the subject matter but the labor and chemistry involved. The work and history. Curator: A crucial point. It's a material record of cultural practice. Consider the social and religious forces driving the site's use and memorialization—a cycle documented and then perpetuated through Valentine's lens. Editor: Looking at the ruins, I wonder about the craftspeople who originally constructed the abbey and chapel. Their hands, their knowledge, their material interactions are literally underneath what we’re seeing today. Curator: And their efforts continue to shape the present, inspiring and shaping art like this photograph, a testament to the endurance and power of history and image-making as cultural forces. Editor: This artwork allows us to look at Iona not only as an idea or image, but to feel the very tangible processes of the materials that form and preserve history.