[Still Life with Statuary] 1850 - 1855

Editor: Here we have Hippolyte Bayard's "[Still Life with Statuary]," created between 1850 and 1855 using the albumen print process. It’s a very staged photograph featuring an array of sculptures. I'm struck by the dreamlike quality and how Bayard toys with light and shadow... what do you make of it? Curator: Oh, it whisks me away to a bygone era! It's almost as if Bayard is conducting a symphony of marble and light. Doesn't the choice of classical figures and the draping fabric give you a sense of the romantic ideals of the time? The figures aren't just sitting there, no, they have presence. Does the somewhat ghostly albumen print intensify that mood, don't you think? Editor: Absolutely, that's precisely it! And how all the pieces have a different point in focus... almost as if Bayard's hinting at different planes of reality? It feels much more innovative for a still life! Curator: I see it as Bayard experimenting with the photograph's ability to immortalize beauty, right when it was emerging. He wasn't simply documenting, you see; he was creating a new world, built of memories of classical grace. Do you get the feeling that he's speaking to the past while whispering to the future? Editor: Yes! And it does make you wonder what other kinds of narratives these still lifes could portray! I will never look at still life photography the same way again. Curator: It's the gift of art, to let us dream of other worlds. Bayard's print will forever be in my memory and imagination.