Gezicht op Leukerbad en de Gemmipas in Zwitserland c. 1875

Editor: So, this photograph is titled “Gezicht op Leukerbad en de Gemmipas in Zwitserland” by Florentin Charnaux, a gelatin-silver print from around 1875. I’m really struck by how small the town looks nestled in those huge mountains; it makes me feel like an explorer! What do you make of it? Curator: I find myself pondering the mountains themselves as a recurring symbol across cultures. Peaks, like those dominating this image, often represent transcendence, enlightenment, and the connection between the earthly and the divine. Do you see how the town, in its minuteness, gains a particular spiritual weight? Editor: I hadn't thought of it that way! It does make the village seem more…significant. Is that why so many spiritual sites are on mountains? Curator: Precisely! And consider the framing of this image: Charnaux positions us, the viewers, as if we too are on some precipice. He’s carefully constructing an experience of awe, using pictorialism's soft focus to emphasize the feeling over pure, documentary vision. What feelings arise when you consider it might not be reality we are viewing but rather someone's experience of reality? Editor: It feels staged somehow, like I'm viewing a myth or a legend, and makes me rethink my initial reaction to it. Thanks for this deeper understanding. Curator: My pleasure! Visual symbols shape how we perceive our surroundings. By unpacking them, we appreciate cultural memory, even in a simple landscape.