Capitool en het Forum, gezien vanaf het Palatijn, Rome 1861 - 1878

Editor: So this is "Capitool en het Forum, gezien vanaf het Palatijn, Rome," taken between 1861 and 1878 by Ernest Eléonor Pierre Lamy. It's a photograph printed in landscape style, showing the Roman Forum from above. The ruins create a rather melancholic mood. What do you see in this piece? Curator: This image speaks volumes about power, history, and the gaze. Lamy’s photograph, taken during a period of intense archaeological activity and nation-building in Italy, presents us with a romanticized view of the past. How do you think the act of photographing the ruins – rather than, say, rebuilding them – reflects the era's attitude toward antiquity and progress? Editor: I suppose it suggests a reverence for the past, but also maybe a resignation? Acknowledging what’s lost while forging ahead? Curator: Precisely! It’s a powerful tension. This image also highlights the perspective of the colonizer or the Grand Tourist – those with the privilege to observe and document, often appropriating history for their own narratives. Consider who gets to tell these stories, and whose stories are left untold in these visually striking landscapes. Does the angle of the photo, taken from a high vantage point, reinforce or challenge established power dynamics? Editor: It definitely feels like a controlled, almost detached perspective, looking down on the Forum and the people who would have lived and worked there. I hadn’t considered it that way before. Curator: And thinking about gender, race and socio-economic backgrounds, how does this photographic perspective silence and/or exclude narratives? Whose histories are overshadowed by the dominant view of the Roman elite that these ruins represent? Editor: That makes me think about the workers, the enslaved people, everyone else whose labor built this Forum… We only see the grand monuments, not the human cost. Thanks, that gives me a lot to consider.