Avignon (Flood of 1856) (Avignon [Inondation de 1856]) 1856

Editor: This is Edouard Baldus’s "Avignon (Flood of 1856)," a daguerreotype photograph from 1856. It depicts, unsurprisingly, the flooded landscape of Avignon. There's a stillness, an eerie quiet to it, even though it represents devastation. What symbols jump out at you, and what do they communicate, looking at this print? Curator: It’s a haunting image, isn't it? The most prominent symbol here is, of course, the water itself. Think of water's symbolic duality: it represents both life and destruction. In mythology, floods are often connected with purification and rebirth. Does seeing Avignon consumed prompt feelings about societal renewal after disaster? Editor: That’s a perspective I hadn't considered. I was focused on the loss evident in the submerged architecture, but purification through loss…it makes me think of romanticism. Is that tied to this print, too? Curator: Precisely. Romanticism often depicted nature’s power. Disasters were, for some, signs of humanity's insignificance against the grand scale of the universe. Consider those partially submerged trees lining what was a road. What narratives are evoked in you as you consider how familiar routes turn into waterways, shifting the city’s symbolism? Editor: A story of a society changed, perhaps irrevocably, but still there? It seems relevant today. Curator: The image is less about one-time destruction than a continuity that is cultural. We can look through a lens from today because the image captured then contained then what it contains now: survival. A cultural memory we can see at once and remember. Editor: I'm starting to see beyond the immediate representation of disaster into these layers of cultural and emotional weight. Curator: The photograph becomes a kind of mirror, reflecting not just a past event but also our present anxieties and hopes. Editor: Thank you. It makes me see how this photographic memory invites reflection across time.