Exterieur van Lawrence Hall en Farnam Hall van Yale University te New Haven c. 1895

Editor: We’re looking at an evocative photograph from around 1895, titled "Exterieur van Lawrence Hall en Farnam Hall van Yale University te New Haven." It’s a gelatin silver print. There's this almost haunting stillness to the scene, a cityscape rendered in shades of grey, all those bare trees reaching skyward... What pulls you into this image? Curator: Haunting is a great word. To me, this photograph whispers of bygone eras, a pre-digital world suspended in time. What strikes me is the deliberate composition, the way the photographer uses those stark, skeletal trees to frame the architecture, to almost merge the man-made and the natural. There's a real Pictorialist influence at play here, wouldn’t you agree? The softness, the way it feels like a painting. Makes you wonder what Yale was like then. What kinds of stories were brewing within those brick walls? I like to imagine it was as rich and verdant in thought as it looked cold on a Winter’s day. Does the building’s geometry speak to you? Editor: I think the geometry of the building evokes such order in juxtaposition with the perceived randomness of the tree branches. So it looks painterly, you say? Is this style unusual for architecture? Curator: Unusual maybe isn't quite right, but the choice to almost soften the image, that definitely nudges it towards artistic interpretation, far away from a straightforward architectural documentation. The photographer isn't just recording a building; they're creating a mood, almost breathing a soul into those stones, inviting us into their perspective, don't you think? Like it is still whispering. Editor: I do. The more you speak the more this still gelatin print reveals! Now it does invite me to wonder and wander as if it were the most important mystery that needed solving. Thanks for sharing your point of view. Curator: And thank you. Art is no good without sharing the points of view!