Elfde pagina van een dagboek van een reis door Noorwegen met een foto met een gezicht op Suldal Vand Possibly 1895 - 1898

Editor: This is a fascinating object, it’s entitled "Elfde pagina van een dagboek van een reis door Noorwegen met een foto met een gezicht op Suldal Vand", which translates to Eleventh page from a diary of a journey through Norway with a photograph overlooking Suldal Lake, by Hendrik Herman van den Berg, likely dating from 1895-1898. The combination of handwritten script and a mounted albumen print gives it such an intimate, personal quality. What symbolic readings or deeper meanings do you draw from this unique presentation? Curator: Seeing the photograph nestled amidst the handwriting, it's impossible not to think about memory. The landscape image itself, Suldal Lake, becomes a symbolic space—perhaps representing the vastness of experience, or the emotional depths within the traveler. The handwritten script acts almost as an intimate incantation, securing these moments to paper. Do you think the contrast between the cool tones of the photographic image and the warmth of the paper affects its feel? Editor: That's an interesting point. Yes, the tones almost evoke a sense of longing, the sepia-toned photograph giving a view to something that’s slightly lost to the past. Is there a sense of other symbols represented on this work? Curator: Consider the very act of journaling itself as a symbol of self-reflection and the desire for preservation. It also can represent the experience of attempting to record a sensation of awe inspired by sublime scenery. Think too, of the conscious choices, by van den Berg to physically glue down an image onto the page which also has the practical details of his voyage through Norway, suggesting a binding between the exterior landscape and the interior, emotional experience. I find it particularly touching. Editor: I hadn’t thought about the active ‘binding’ of experience to the personal. It certainly shifts my perspective. Curator: Exactly! That binding of place and the act of recollection allows us to re-consider the complex ways memories are produced, as a site of cultural and personal significance.