Gezicht op de Dom van Pisa c. 1860 - 1880

Editor: This is a stereograph by Giorgio Sommer, titled "Gezicht op de Dom van Pisa", placing us in Pisa sometime between 1860 and 1880. It is a photo print from the Rijksmuseum collection. What strikes me most is the slightly dreamlike quality, given that it's supposed to be a straightforward architectural image. What do you see in this piece? Curator: You know, "dreamlike" is such an evocative word here. It hits something true about this particular moment in photographic history. These stereo images were the VR of their time, trying to capture reality perfectly, yet the process imbued them with this fascinating…distance. It’s as if we are looking at a memory of a place rather than the place itself. Editor: A memory is a great way of putting it. And you feel that just from the photographic process? Curator: I think so! Look at the duplication itself - isn’t it how memories work? They are there and not there all at once, slightly blurred with repetition. I think this picture gives the viewers something quite complex: a scientific objectification, a picturesque souvenir, and a shadow of our own perception all rolled into one. Do you see what I mean? Editor: I think so. The doubling and slight blur makes the leaning tower and the cathedral seem less real and a little ghostlike, not quite there. The photograph then captures the cultural meaning rather than the structures in themselves? Curator: Precisely. And, tell me, what does this ghostly echo tell you? Does it enhance, maybe even create, the romantic vision, this tourist gaze towards an instantly recognisable building? Editor: Hmm, interesting. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but now I see it... the photo, this early photograph, creates the mythology as much as it documents it. Curator: Exactly! And there you have the strange alchemy of art, my friend.