De Mont Blanc, tijdens een vakantie van Eugen Wachenheimer en zijn echtgenote Else Wachenheimer-Moos door Zwitserland, augustus 1927, Mont Blanc 1927 - 1928

This photograph of Mont Blanc was taken in August 1927, by an anonymous photographer, during a holiday of Eugen Wachenheimer and his wife Else. The print is mounted into a photo album, a common way to curate one's own image collection. Photography, like other industrial technologies, had a profound impact on art and society. The seemingly objective process of capturing an image changed our perception of realism and artistic representation. The photograph is a product of chemical processes applied to paper, combined with optics. The creation and consumption of photographs, even snapshots like this one, speak to wider issues of labor, politics, and consumption. Cameras, film, and darkroom equipment had to be manufactured, distributed, and sold, while the final photographs reflect the leisure and social status of the Wachenheimers. The level of work involved in the production of photographic images is often overlooked. This photograph asks us to think about the complex layers of material and processes involved in documenting a moment in time.