Gezicht op Main Street en het stadhuis in Port Elizabeth 1901

This stereograph from Underwood & Underwood captures a view of Main Street in Port Elizabeth. They made it in 1903 using photographic emulsion on card stock. I imagine the photographers, squinting into the light, carefully adjusting their contraption. I bet they had to wait an age for the street to be *just* right, people posed perfectly mid-stride, those shadows stretching like long fingers. It's a whole performance, getting the light, the composition, just so. Look at the way the buildings loom, the sharp lines of the architecture contrasting with the soft blur of the figures, like a dance between intention and accident. You almost get a feeling of what it was like to be there. How do you capture a feeling, a mood? These photographers were doing it long before 'selfies'! It’s as if they are saying, "Here, world, see this place, see this moment." And isn't that what every artist hopes for? To freeze a bit of time, a bit of the world, and share it.