Fotoreproductie van een prent naar een schilderij met een meisje en een wolf, mogelijk Roodkapje, door Ernst Bosch before 1874

Editor: This gelatin silver print, a photographic reproduction of Ernst Bosch's earlier print from before 1874, presents a young girl, likely Little Red Riding Hood, encountering a wolf in the woods. It’s… unnerving. The texture and soft focus give it a dreamlike quality, but the subject matter creates a palpable tension. What symbolic reading can we give to this piece? Curator: It’s the visual legacy of the fairytale that intrigues, isn't it? The recurring motif of the innocent confronted by the predatory. Think of the forest itself. It represents the unconscious, the untamed, a space where societal rules dissolve and primal instincts take over. What does the wolf represent for you? Editor: Danger, definitely, but also cunning… maybe even a dark aspect of human nature itself? Curator: Precisely. And the girl? She’s not just innocent, she's a symbol of vulnerability, trust, and the precariousness of childhood. Note how the landscape isn't merely a backdrop, it’s an active participant. Its depth evokes feelings of being watched and anxiety. Doesn’t the choice of printing such an intimate encounter as a photograph for dissemination make you reflect on the commercialisation and cultural ubiquity of the visual? Editor: It does. It’s almost as if the photograph helps in the transformation of an oral folk tale into popular culture. It’s a chilling reminder of those archetypal fears, reframed for a new era. Curator: Indeed. And the re-printing of a print. Each new visual iteration enhances the cultural memory imbedded in the fable. It is this ability to rework an iconic symbol into modern anxieties that provides this photo its uncanny charge. Editor: This has given me so much to consider. Seeing how photography changes our relation to stories changes how I see things in other exhibits. Curator: I’m pleased I could share the visual history as something continually renewed and revisited.