View to the High Bridge in Hamburg 1761

Editor: This is Johann Dieterich Fos’s “View to the High Bridge in Hamburg”. It feels… industrial, almost. What strikes you about this image? Curator: I see a portrait of a city grappling with change. Canals such as this enabled trade and shaped power. Who benefited, and who was excluded from this growing prosperity? How did maritime infrastructure alter social dynamics? Editor: That's a good point. So this isn't just a pretty picture of a harbor. Curator: Precisely. Consider the workers who built the bridge, the merchants whose wealth depended on the harbor, and the communities displaced by expansion. Fos gives us a beautiful picture, but the question is who it served. Editor: Thank you. Now I see beyond the surface!