Tyr. 1870s

Editor: So this is Félix Bonfils's "Tyr.", an albumen print from the 1870s. Looking at this, I'm immediately struck by the texture, the density of the built environment captured in sepia tones. It feels like a really tangible historical record. What strikes you most about this work? Curator: The materiality is paramount. It’s not just about the picturesque view, but the labor embedded in creating this image. Think of the processes: mining the silver for the emulsion, the craftsman producing the paper. Do you see how this print embodies a specific historical moment of colonial expansion, facilitated by these very industrial processes? Editor: That's a perspective I hadn't considered. I was focusing more on the architecture, the style, and the implied narrative of life in this city. How would you say this photograph engages with ideas of Orientalism, given the period it was made in? Curator: Precisely. Consider Bonfils’s position: a Western photographer capturing a ‘scene’ from the East. The production of this image reinforces a power dynamic. He's creating a commodity for consumption back home – an exotic "view," mass-produced and distributed using the technologies of empire. The photographic process itself becomes a tool for defining and controlling the narrative around this place, and shaping Western perceptions. What value did such images create, and for whom? Editor: That's fascinating. I hadn't thought about the material production as being so deeply intertwined with colonial power. I guess I was looking at it too much as a simple document of a place and time. Curator: It's a document, yes, but one actively shaped by material conditions and social forces. Thinking about these albumen prints, even the chemical composition plays a role, the effect that changes in humidity have on them… they speak of an entanglement between aesthetics, science, and commerce. Editor: Thanks, that really broadened my understanding of what's at play here. Seeing it as more than just an image but an artifact of specific processes, and how that ties into larger historical forces, is very helpful. Curator: Indeed, it is a point of reflection and continuous study for a deeper art appreciation.