Twee onbekende vrouwen in een tuin te Broek before 1894

Editor: Here we have a photographic print called "Twee onbekende vrouwen in een tuin te Broek," or "Two unknown women in a garden at Broek," dating from before 1894, by Charles L. Mitchell. I notice immediately the strong contrast and slightly staged, intimate feel. What strikes you when you see it? Curator: For me, the interest lies in understanding this print within its material context. Look closely – it is not simply the photographic image, but a bounded object *within* a book, suggesting intended consumption as a reproduced item for broader circulation. This contrasts to photography understood primarily as high art, inviting us to consider it rather as an object of genre-painting designed for an aspiring middle class, a kind of "intimist" scene in their homes. What can this print tell us about nineteenth-century techniques for reproduction and the societal function it was supposed to fulfill? Editor: I hadn't considered its placement within a book so intently! So, you’re thinking about who would have purchased such a book, and how this print speaks to *their* interests? Curator: Precisely. Think about the materiality of photography in the late 19th century, and what it would mean to experience a landscape via photographic reproduction in a book rather than on a wall. The material supports the message; we are far from notions of the aura of unique artistic expression here. What happens to our concept of “landscape” as high art in such cases, when the materiality screams bourgeois consumption? Editor: I guess I was focused on the intimate setting, but considering it as a commercial object really shifts my perspective on its purpose and how people might have engaged with it at the time. It's really fascinating how the print material and presentation provide the initial entry points into its potential meaning and purpose. Curator: Exactly. The ‘Twee onbekende vrouwen’ prompts us to engage, analyze, and assess this piece for its intrinsic qualities, but more so for the clues its physical object provides concerning social history and the role of the image within processes of social formation.