Gezicht op het centrale plein van de World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 met op de voorgrond het standbeeld door Daniel Chester French, voorstellend een personificatie van de republiek 1893

This photogravure by Charles Dudley Arnold captures the central plaza of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. The image-making process itself speaks volumes. Photogravure, a labor-intensive printing technique, combines photography and etching. Light and shadow interplay across the scene, thanks to the tonal range achieved through the photogravure process. The statue of the Republic in the foreground, made by Daniel Chester French, and the grand architecture beyond symbolize America’s aspirations at the turn of the century. The World’s Fair was designed to showcase American industrial might. The statue appears as marble, yet it was not. It was made by staffage, a mix of plaster and binding fibres, and the whole fair was nicknamed ‘The White City’ because of the uniform colour of the plaster facades. The use of plaster was efficient and cost-effective, but also deceptive, hinting at the spectacle and illusion at play in these monumental displays of progress and power. This material strategy raises questions about labor, authenticity, and the very idea of progress that the fair sought to celebrate.