Gezicht op een weg en en rivier door het Brattlanddal in Noorwegen c. 1870 - 1900

Editor: This is "Gezicht op een weg en en rivier door het Brattlanddal in Noorwegen" by Knud Knudsen, a photograph probably taken between 1870 and 1900. It's a pretty stark landscape. What strikes me is how the road and the river seem equally carved out of the rock. What do you see in this image? Curator: Immediately I’m drawn to the labor evident in this landscape. The photograph depicts a road seemingly blasted through solid rock, dwarfing the horse-drawn carriage and implicitly highlighting the human cost involved in making the terrain navigable. Consider the material reality here – the explosives used, the manual labor involved. It’s easy to aestheticize nature, but this image throws into relief the exertion and effort it takes to literally reshape it. How does this process contrast with the natural, untouched landscape around it? Editor: It's interesting to think of it as reshaping nature, especially as landscape photography can tend to romanticize it. But that blasted rock... it does suggest a different relationship. Were photographs like this ever used to encourage more industry in untouched areas? Curator: Exactly. These landscape photographs, mass-produced through albumen prints, would have circulated widely, potentially encouraging further resource extraction and infrastructure development. They aestheticize a process with consequences. We see the apparent conquering of the wilderness. Consider also the social hierarchies inherent in this "conquest" – who benefits from this road? Whose labor built it, and under what conditions? Editor: So, it's not just about pretty scenery, but about the means of production hidden within the image. The materials used, the labor… It provides a critical perspective. I hadn’t considered how the very making of the road and the photograph are intertwined. Curator: Precisely. Reflecting on the processes and their social implications can reveal how we are implicated in this visual representation.