Niagara In Winter 1860 - 1861

Curator: Immediately, I’m struck by the sheer starkness of this print, a gelatin-silver photograph entitled "Niagara In Winter," dating to around 1860 or 1861. Those icicles against what I assume is a partially frozen fall look dangerous. Editor: The way those ice formations are rendered, it gives an eerie beauty to a powerful landscape. The question of how natural resources and monumental sites such as this became potent national and even colonial symbols at the time it was made is also worth our attention. Curator: It’s fascinating when you consider how photography as a medium contributed to that romantic idealization of nature, packaging the sublime for mass consumption. You could purchase photographs like these rather easily, in multiple formats. It's the industrial revolution meeting pristine wilderness, neatly captured on silver. Editor: Absolutely. Think about what it meant to claim ownership, or even the *illusion* of ownership, over a place like Niagara Falls at a time of such social and political division within the US. Who had access to the Falls, or to images of it, becomes critical. Curator: And what kind of labor went into this particular rendering? Gelatin-silver prints require very particular conditions and a degree of technical expertise to produce a quality print. Editor: This is where thinking intersectionally is key: issues of labor, race, class all determine how a place like Niagara and even this photo come to exist. Photography's development often relied on extractive processes that impacted vulnerable communities. The aesthetics and ethics are completely intertwined. Curator: Well, you’ve certainly given me something to ponder about photographic processes and labor beyond the darkroom techniques used in creating this beautiful and somewhat unsettling landscape print. It brings new meaning to this representation of Niagara’s power. Editor: I appreciate the opportunity to delve a little deeper and situate the making of the work within its context, broadening the narrative around "Niagara In Winter."