Kar getrokken door een paard bij een bouwwerk before 1920

Editor: This photograph, entitled "Kar getrokken door een paard bij een bouwwerk," by Donald Mennie, taken before 1920, shows a horse-drawn cart moving in front of what appears to be a walled city or fortress. It's incredibly striking—almost like a record of labor. What can you tell me about this image? Curator: The photograph indeed documents labor, but also points to a tension inherent in early photography. Consider the albumen print process, used here. This method, while celebrated for its detail, relied heavily on exploiting resources like egg whites on a massive scale, to achieve this tonal range. This pursuit of detail mirrors colonial desires to catalog and control landscapes and people through visual means. Editor: So you are saying the medium is the message? How does that apply here? Curator: The very act of photographing becomes a form of taking, appropriating the scene and fixing it within a specific, controlled representation. Consider the power dynamic involved—Mennie, a Western photographer, capturing this scene of presumably local workers within what is probably China. What purpose did it serve to bring this scene back home, and where did it sit alongside the social narrative about Chinese production methods? Editor: That’s interesting, I hadn’t thought of that. It seemed a fairly straightforward depiction of a city scene with a worker! I guess thinking about the materiality of photography and who controlled the means of image production puts it in a totally different light. Thank you for opening my eyes! Curator: It’s a vital aspect often overlooked. Reflecting on production encourages questioning the image's implied truth and the narratives we've internalized about places and the labour enacted.