Verdedigingswerken op New Zealand Hill waar kapitein Maddox de Boerenaanval afwendde, 14 januari 1900

Curator: The desaturated tones of this albumen print certainly evoke a palpable sense of somber atmosphere. Editor: Indeed. “Verdedigingswerken op New Zealand Hill waar kapitein Maddox de Boerenaanval afwendde, 14 januari,” which roughly translates to “Defenses on New Zealand Hill Where Captain Maddox Repelled the Boer Attack, January 14th.” It dates to around 1900. You know, it makes me feel small; that beige horizon is daunting. Curator: What’s striking to me is the spatial ambiguity achieved through the stereoscopic format, and how it impacts the photograph's meaning. Notice how it’s essentially a double image. Does it heighten the viewer’s awareness, or does it create a sense of distance and detachment? Editor: Perhaps both. This photograph, made using the albumen process, immediately gives us a record of history, of a moment. Albumen printing would have had a different impact on the viewer at that time because photography as documentation would be a more novel concept. I am reminded of colonial conflict more generally, where photography, particularly portraiture, helped reify constructed power structures. Curator: You are right on point! The use of landscape to depict defense suggests an awareness of power and dominion but through, if I dare say, rather subtle means. Also, albumen prints have unique reflective properties—this one creates a warm tone that offsets, in an almost insidious way, the bleak subject matter. Editor: The details along the trench are revealing. See the human figures lined along the ridge, blending into the rocky terrain. What symbolic reading do you give it? Curator: In Western painting, allegorical representations of fortitude often show figures standing defiantly on mountains. Here, we see people huddled. Are they in strength, or weakness? Is the mountain a symbol of resolve, or an emblem of an isolating colonial project? Editor: A picture of complicated strength, then. It uses composition to explore the complexities of that concept, something photography arguably continues to explore in diverse ways today. I see now it is not really desaturated, but sun-bleached—sun-soaked, even! I see strength in that photographic and alchemic perseverance, and something rather touching, rather humbling. Curator: I concur! There’s a deep irony that the photograph is almost silent; yet, it memorializes an active defense. I am grateful for the ability to see and meditate upon what, after all, occurred a lifetime ago.