Gezicht op het kasteel van Hastings before 1875

Editor: This is "Gezicht op het kasteel van Hastings," or "View of Hastings Castle," before 1875 by Wm. E. Thorpe. It’s an albumen print, and looking at it, I'm struck by this overwhelming feeling of melancholic stillness. What catches your eye when you see it? Curator: The way the ruins stand framed within a later border evokes for me a sense of how history is carefully packaged and presented. But what memories, what meanings are obscured by that presentation? The image itself is a kind of ruin, faded, sepia-toned; it speaks of a bygone era looking back at a still earlier time. Notice how nature seems to be reclaiming the stones. Editor: So, is this overgrown quality deliberate, you think? I initially thought of decay and maybe romantic ruin, but you see it differently. Curator: Think about it. What does it mean to choose to show a ruin overrun? What emotions does this evoke? Thorpe invites us to contemplate the cyclical nature of time, the relentless advance of nature over human endeavors. Consider how often we photograph ruins in a certain way – tidy, accessible – versus how this resists that impulse, allowing something more feral. Editor: That makes sense! It shifts my perception quite a bit. It's not just documenting a place; it's capturing a process of memory, where nature softens sharp edges of time and history. Thank you. Curator: Precisely. And next time you see ruins documented, you might be more alert to the perspective it encourages.