Standbeeld in Bazel, Zwitserland c. 1880 - 1910

Giorgio Sommer produced this albumen print of a statue in Basel, Switzerland, sometime in the late 19th century. The photographic process itself is crucial to understanding this image. Albumen printing, popular during this period, involved coating paper with egg white and silver nitrate, creating a surface sensitive to light. Sommer, likely working with a large format camera, would have carefully composed the scene, exposing the sensitized paper to sunlight through a negative. The resulting print, with its characteristic tonal range and sharp detail, captures the monument's imposing presence. What we see is a layered process: the labor of quarrying, carving, and assembling the statue now captured through the labor of the photographer. The layers of production speak to a social context of industry, where images became more easily reproducible and disseminated. It underscores how photography, like other crafts, mediates our understanding of history and culture.