Britse telefonisten en telegrafisten bij de Oranjerivier, Zuid-Afrika 1900

Curator: Ah, here we have "Britse telefonisten en telegrafisten bij de Oranjerivier, Zuid-Afrika," a gelatin-silver print from around 1900. Quite the mouthful! What catches your eye? Editor: It’s fascinating to see this snapshot in time – all these telephone and telegraph operators from the British forces out in South Africa. They’re seated so calmly, sending news it seems. It all seems very still but, obviously, there’s so much happening behind the scenes. What do you see in this piece, what are you first drawn to? Curator: The flatness! It’s not a *real* flatness, of course, but the whole scene feels bleached and spread wide and the figures become shapes. I wonder if the intention here was really to convey something of the sparseness, the sheer distances and monotony that these men must have been experiencing in that place. Like: communication under skies of iron! Do you think they knew then, making this, how powerful that comes across now? Editor: That’s interesting. So you see the landscape, or the lack of it, as speaking about their experience? It’s also amazing to consider that the act of sending news from this "flatness" required an entire network and operation. Curator: Exactly! I think about that sometimes; we consume an image, or a sound, a ‘communication’ from halfway across the world in a microsecond – here they are *making* that ability from nothing. Laying the wires, literally and figuratively. Is that not wild? Editor: It *is* wild. Now, I feel the calm differently; the individuals are at the center of it, not observers. It has certainly provided a new way for me to reflect on it. Thanks for your perspective! Curator: It was lovely. You made me think afresh, too!