Pompeii_ House of the Faun, No. 5058 c. 1870 - 1880

This photograph of the House of the Faun in Pompeii was captured by Giacomo Brogi sometime in the mid-19th century. It’s a direct record of the site itself, but also speaks to the social context of archaeological exploration at that time. Consider the labor that would have been necessary to excavate this site and the lives of the individuals whose work revealed these ruins to the world, a process that was surely arduous and painstaking. The photographic process itself involved considerable work. The glass plate negative used to produce this print was itself a handcrafted object. The photographer had to coat a glass plate with chemicals, expose it in the camera while still wet, and then develop it immediately. Brogi, as a commercial photographer, was part of a growing industry that catered to tourists eager to possess images of exotic locales and historical sites. His photograph captures not only the grandeur of ancient Roman architecture but also the burgeoning era of mass tourism and image consumption. It reminds us that even the act of documentation is steeped in layers of human effort, intention, and market forces.