Gezicht op de Narva-triomfboog in Sint-Petersburg c. 1860 - 1880

Curator: This gelatin silver print from sometime between 1860 and 1880 offers a view of the Narva Triumphal Arch in St. Petersburg, as captured by Alfred Lorens. Editor: There’s something both grand and lonely about it. The arch itself looms, but the muted tones and stark emptiness around it evoke a certain solitude. It seems to stand guard over… nothing much. Curator: The arch was constructed in the early 19th century to commemorate Russia's victory over Napoleon, so you’re right, the photograph has been capturing an artifact carrying heavy symbolic baggage from earlier times. You can still read this symbolism even now, can’t you? A celebration of military power solidified in stone. The figures atop embody the triumphant spirit. Editor: Yes, definitely. Even knowing nothing about the monument, that crowning arrangement, with the chariot and the allegorical figures, feels intentionally posed to celebrate empire. It has all the traditional victory motifs you would find on classic sculptures. What strikes me most is this is how history is constantly presented as self-perpetuating, the way an arch visually refers back to ancient Rome. Curator: It is interesting how the relatively new technology of photography engages with ancient tropes. These images allowed for wider distribution of patriotic symbolism and architectural achievements than earlier methods of representation could have offered. A way to solidify power through image. Editor: So this print almost functions as propaganda. That suggests new ways of controlling public opinion through art, where the image itself can stand in for an ideology. This piece reflects Russia's imperial ambitions, captured at a moment when photography was changing how those ambitions could be broadcast to the world. Curator: Precisely, and I would even push this farther into the psychology of national feeling. Consider what monuments continue to represent: both celebration and often contestation, even conflict and trauma over historical understanding. Editor: This makes one consider the lasting visual imprints of power in an era where photography was just beginning to flex its muscles. It’s remarkable to see those classical motifs and symbolic grammars translated into such a modern medium.