Musée de Cluny te Parijs 1887 - 1900

Editor: So this albumen print, “Musée de Cluny te Parijs,” taken sometime between 1887 and 1900 by X phot., feels almost dreamlike in its soft focus and sepia tones. It looks so aged and enduring. What draws your eye when you examine it? Curator: It's the construction of this image that I find compelling. Think about the labor involved. Quarrying the stone, shaping it, transporting it – each step reliant on human effort and material resources. This photograph collapses centuries of labor into a single frame. The architecture signifies power, yet it is completely reliant on manual processes for its manifestation. Editor: I see what you mean! How the raw materials were transformed and who was involved in the transformation definitely reframes how one looks at it. Is that what you focus on primarily when looking at photography from this period? Curator: Largely. The very process of albumen printing—coating paper with egg white and light-sensitive chemicals—involved significant, often invisible, labor. Women, for example, were often tasked with this preparation. Considering that invisible work complicates the narratives surrounding these images, doesn't it? The end result obscures all those earlier processes of making. Editor: That is true. Thinking about the whole lifecycle and materiality makes the photograph richer. It gives the print more texture, so to speak, conceptually and practically. I didn't realize albumen involved egg whites, or the labour attached to photography in that period. Curator: Exactly. Examining the materiality and labor allows us to challenge the romanticized view of photography as solely an artistic endeavor. Editor: Thanks so much; now I'm curious to find out more. Curator: A materialist reading does that for me, too.