Gezicht op een straat in Rotterdam, met op de achtergrond een molen before 1895

Editor: Here we have a photograph entitled "Gezicht op een straat in Rotterdam, met op de achtergrond een molen," placing us in Rotterdam, likely before 1895, by Maurice Bucquet. The monochrome tones evoke a sense of the past, capturing a street scene with a prominent windmill in the background. What's your take on this piece? Curator: The image’s materiality speaks volumes. A gelatin-silver print— consider the socio-economic implications. Photography became increasingly accessible, influencing how urban landscapes were documented and consumed. Before 1895, photography wasn't merely representational; it was an industrial product, made by particular means to depict particular subjects for a burgeoning market. Notice how the built environment and its function are showcased? What kind of labor and capital do you think was invested in both the scene itself and in the final photograph? Editor: That’s fascinating! I hadn't considered the economic implications of gelatin-silver printing. Thinking about the labor, I suppose that producing these images at scale required a whole new support network, including suppliers, distributors, and more. It’s interesting to think of it as a commodity reflecting its age of mechanical production and social progress. So, is the focus less on the aesthetic qualities of the cityscape, and more on the method by which we encounter and document it? Curator: Precisely! How the city itself and its elements – the streets, buildings, the mill– become materials presented to be documented, organized, and consumed in a novel way via this reproducible medium, gelatin-silver print. Editor: I never really looked at it that way before. It's really interesting to see it as an industrialized method of documentation that inherently speaks to both material conditions and emerging cultural values in the late 19th Century.