Gezicht op een aanval op forten in Pretoria 1900

Editor: Here we have a photograph titled "Gezicht op een aanval op forten in Pretoria," taken around 1900 by an anonymous photographer. It's a gelatin silver print, and honestly, it feels very bleak and desolate to me. There are only a few figures scattered across this vast, empty landscape and plumes of smoke barely visible in the background. What stands out to you? Curator: I’m struck by how this seemingly simple image holds so much historical and symbolic weight. Consider the photographic medium itself at this time, relatively new and yet deployed to document and disseminate a very specific narrative of conflict. The emptiness you describe is a powerful symbol – an emptiness perhaps reflecting the emotional and psychological impact of colonial war. Look at those tiny figures. Do they seem heroic? Or diminished within this immense space? Editor: Diminished, definitely. They seem so small and insignificant compared to the land. I almost missed them at first. The smoke in the background implies a great battle, but everything is muted and grey, not very heroic. Curator: Exactly. The artist makes visual choices of framing and vantage, so the emotional resonance conveys more than documentary facts. How does the repetition of form and subject strike you within the diptych format, its doubling effect? It is interesting to see it reproduced for viewing in a stereoscope format. Does that 3D construction have impact on your perception? Editor: It creates a strange sense of depth that almost feels staged, adding to the artificiality, even if it wasn't intentional at the time. So the format is just as critical to its meaning as the subject itself? Curator: Precisely. Each element, from the medium to the composition, works together to convey the emotional landscape of a conflict and imprint the history of that war onto our memory. Editor: I never thought about the photographer's choices in portraying the lack of glory in this scene. This really gives me a different way of seeing conflict photography.