Gezicht op de Boompjes in Rotterdam 1860 - 1890

Curator: Oh, my first impression is just pure sepia nostalgia! It’s the quiet before the bicycle—that stillness of 19th-century city life. Editor: We’re looking at an albumen print, dating roughly between 1860 and 1890, titled "Gezicht op de Boompjes in Rotterdam." This is an anonymous photograph, but its survival and presence here at the Rijksmuseum gives it tremendous value. Curator: Value indeed! And not just monetary. You see those buildings? Solid, imposing… I wonder what stories they could tell. I almost feel like I know the ghosts of the people who walked that street. Editor: Those cobblestones, though, are the key! Notice how they make up most of the image? Someone had to lay each one individually, which indicates labour and craftsmanship, forming Rotterdam’s character, connecting it to maritime trade and mercantile expansion. This isn't just a street. It’s an infrastructure of trade made visible! Curator: Visible, yes, but there’s an invisible undercurrent too. Photography at this time, especially cityscapes, was so deliberate. Think of how long the exposure must have been. Editor: Exactly. The materiality speaks volumes! Albumen prints use egg whites. This highlights the relationship between chemical processes and the final product. You are seeing organic compounds translated into the geometry of urbanization and industry. Curator: Okay, I concede, that's profound! All those eggs, producing this beautiful, dreamlike quality… it touches on the human effort behind even seemingly simple art. It makes you ponder the sheer number of photos not taken, lives unrecorded. Editor: And consider the impact of mass-produced images at the time: accessibility, documentary value... But also the solidification of cultural norms, through photographic records presented as objective reality. Curator: Reality bent through a lens, crafted in egg and silver. And in gazing upon it, we reconstruct a ghost world – street by street. Editor: An intricate connection of chemistry, commerce, and consciousness… all layered into the cobblestone.