Gezicht op Cortina d'Ampezzo 1861 - 1867

Carl Alexander Czichna captured this view of Cortina d'Ampezzo with a camera, though we don't know exactly when. What does it mean to see a landscape like this transformed into an image? Perhaps the most obvious association would be with the rise of tourism in the 19th century. Railroads allowed easier access to places like this in the Alps, and photography allowed those locations to be widely advertised, creating a desire for more and more people to visit them. The presence of a 'Hotel Victoria' in the image may also be a sign of this growth in the tourist industry. This image is clearly made with the intention of being widely distributed, and it may have played a small part in transforming this isolated village into the popular resort it is today. To fully understand an image like this, it's important to consider social and economic factors as much as artistic ones. What was the economic situation in this region? How did the rise of tourism affect the local population? These are the kinds of questions a historian might ask.