Corn dance, Santa Domingo c. 1900

Editor: This albumen print, “Corn Dance, Santa Domingo” by Adam Clark Vroman, dates to around 1900. The print itself is adhered to a playing card! I am curious about that fact. What do you make of the decision to create a photograph that will exist in this particular form? Curator: Well, let’s consider the context. Vroman was operating during a period of immense social change and industrial expansion, wasn't he? The materiality of photography in the early 20th century is complex. Editor: Yes, how so? Curator: Think about albumen prints – thin paper, delicate process, dependent on mass produced materials and often deployed within colonial contexts. Combining this delicate photo with the card disrupts a hierarchy of fine art. This is an everyday, mass-produced object that now bears an image of significant cultural ritual. Consider the labor that goes into creating a dance like this, and contrast it with the mechanization of card production and photography. Editor: That is a tension I did not notice initially! It complicates how we value both. I thought it was strange the photograph was printed on the face of a card, but it seems this raises deeper questions. Curator: Exactly! What do we consume? Whose labor do we recognize? And what do we choose to represent through the photographic medium? Vroman's work invites reflection on these important matters. Editor: Now I see a clearer picture! I appreciate the historical and social considerations within material choices of image making.