Weg door het Haslital, Zwitserland 1857 - 1914

Giorgio Sommer created this photograph of ‘Weg door het Haslital, Zwitserland’ sometime between 1860 and 1914. Sommer, a German photographer based in Italy, captured landscapes and scenes that catered to the burgeoning tourist industry. This image offers us a glimpse into the romanticized view of nature that was popular during the late 19th century. We see a road carved into the side of a mountain, a dramatic waterfall cascading alongside it. The very act of building this road signifies an intersection of human ambition and the sublime, untamed natural world. Consider the relationship between the viewer, the photographer, and the landscape. Sommer’s photographs were often consumed by upper-class Europeans, who could afford to travel and collect these images. This photograph isn’t just a depiction of a place, but a commodity, a souvenir of an experience. What does it mean to capture and consume a landscape in this way? Does it deepen our appreciation for nature, or does it create a distance, turning the natural world into a spectacle?