Gezicht op Meiringen te Zwitserland 1880 - 1900

Editor: So, this is "Gezicht op Meiringen te Zwitserland," a photograph by Giorgio Sommer, dating roughly from 1880 to 1900. It’s an albumen print depicting a Swiss town nestled at the foot of some pretty majestic mountains. I’m really struck by the way the small town seems so dwarfed by the landscape. What’s your take? Curator: I see a really interesting convergence of artistic and social trends. Photography, especially landscape photography, gained immense popularity during this period. Consider how photography provided access. Before mass tourism, most people only knew these kinds of landscapes through paintings. What do you think the rise of tourism in Switzerland at that time says about this image and others? Editor: Hmm, that's a great point! Maybe this photo is partly a commodity, like a postcard meant to entice people to visit. Curator: Precisely! Think about the perspective used here. Sommer chooses a viewpoint that both emphasizes the imposing scale of nature while reassuringly including the signs of civilization – the church, the carefully laid out fields. Photography at the time really became involved in constructing specific narratives. The 'picturesque' town and landscape offered something new but familiar to an emerging European middle class hungry for travel. Editor: It's amazing how a seemingly simple image can be connected to something much bigger about cultural shifts and power dynamics. Curator: Exactly. Photography’s not just capturing what's there; it's participating in how places are understood and consumed. Looking at photos through their social implications encourages different questions about these places. Editor: That gives me a totally new lens for looking at landscape photography. I’m seeing this print with fresh eyes now!