Mensen bekijken vanaf de kade de hoge waterstand van de Seine in Parijs 1910 - 1911

Editor: This photograph, titled "Mensen bekijken vanaf de kade de hoge waterstand van de Seine in Parijs," was taken between 1910 and 1911 by G. Dangereux, using a gelatin silver print process. It’s striking how the flooded Seine almost swallows the cityscape, and I'm drawn to the crowd of people observing. What's your perspective on this piece? Curator: What jumps out to me is the materiality of the gelatin silver print itself. Consider the chemistry involved: silver halides reacting to light, permanently fixing an image onto a surface. Dangereux wasn't just capturing a scene; he was manipulating a specific industrial process. What can the scale and the mass production of gelatin-silver-prints at that time tell us about the social and economic changes in urban Paris? Editor: That’s interesting; I hadn't considered the industrial aspect. So you see the print less as a window onto a flood, and more as an object shaped by the photographic industry of the time? Curator: Exactly! Think about the availability of photographic materials. Who had access to photography and what did they decide to photograph and disseminate at this moment? The flooded Seine might symbolize more than just a natural disaster; it might represent societal anxieties of a rapidly changing era documented for mass consumption and for varying possible audiences. Editor: So, even a seemingly straightforward image like this raises questions about labour, materiality, and consumption? Curator: Absolutely. By examining the means of production, we can gain a richer understanding of both the image and the context in which it was created. Editor: I will never look at gelatin-silver-prints in the same way. Thank you. Curator: Likewise! It makes you appreciate how images were so laboriously created, shared, and ultimately consumed, a far cry from our contemporary moment.