Gezicht op Amsterdam met de Munttoren 1860 - 1875

This is Jules Hippolyte Quéval's view of the Munttoren in Amsterdam, made with photography, one of the great industrial innovations of the nineteenth century. It's a stereograph – a double image – which would have been viewed through a special device to give a vivid illusion of three-dimensionality. Think of it as a nineteenth-century version of virtual reality. The proliferation of photography was driven by capitalism, as new markets opened for mass-produced images. Quéval shows us not only a famous landmark, but also the urban fabric around it. Every brick, every windowpane, speaks to the labor and materials involved in the city’s construction. And the stereograph itself, with its promise of immersive experience, invites us to consider our own place within this built environment. It is a powerful reminder of how images shape our perceptions and desires.