Gedeelte van boerderij Leyenhof te Wahlwiller 1890

This photograph of the Leyenhof farm in Wahlwiller, was created by an anonymous photographer working for Monumentenzorg, the Dutch heritage agency. The image itself is made from humble materials: paper and light-sensitive chemicals, used to capture the rough-hewn stone, timber and thatch of the building. Think for a moment about the labor invested in this construction: the quarrying and shaping of stone, the felling of trees and their conversion to structural members, the harvesting and weaving of thatch. These are time-consuming, skilled processes, deeply rooted in the rural landscape. Photography emerged during the Industrial Revolution, often deployed to document the transformations of the era. But here, it memorializes a vernacular building tradition, capturing a way of life that was already beginning to fade. What does it mean to preserve this way of life? To make it visible, at a time of rapid change? By focusing on the materials and processes, we can think about the values that underpin our cultural heritage.