Boulevard van Brighton ter hoogte van Hotel Metropole c. 1880 - 1910

Editor: This is an albumen print, a photograph titled "Boulevard van Brighton ter hoogte van Hotel Metropole," created by W.M. Spooner & Co. sometime between 1880 and 1910. It feels very formal, like a stage set. What's your take? Curator: It's interesting that you use the word "formal." Considering pictorialism’s investment in aestheticizing photography to mimic painting, how does that affect our understanding of the people in it? Does the formality highlight class divisions, with the hotel and boulevard serving as a stage for the bourgeois? Editor: I hadn’t thought of it that way, but that makes sense. I was just focused on the composition, with all the linear elements, but your point about class makes me see it differently. Does the viewpoint also affect that? The perspective is kind of from above… Curator: Exactly! The slightly elevated vantage point does give us a sense of surveillance, almost as if we’re invited to observe, and by extension, judge, this segment of society. Think about whose gaze is prioritized, and whose is rendered anonymous, almost invisible within the print. Are we seeing a celebration, or a critique of leisure and privilege? Editor: So it's not just a pretty picture of a fancy hotel. It makes me wonder about the photographer's intentions, and who this photograph was actually *for*. I never would have considered the viewpoint this way. Curator: Precisely. Considering it as a product for consumption within a specific social strata complicates how we understand not only the image, but the era itself. It really showcases the intersection of art and social history, doesn’t it? Editor: Definitely! I’ll never look at old photographs the same way again. Thanks for pointing out the layers of meaning in something that initially just seemed like a pretty view.