Craigend before 1878

Editor: This is “Craigend,” a photograph by Thomas Annan, created before 1878. It's an albumen print, so seeing it within the context of the book is a bit like handling an artifact. There's something inherently aged and important feeling about it. What strikes you when you see this work? Curator: Well, considering Annan’s focus and the print’s medium immediately grounds the work in the tangible realities of its production. Look at the specific albumen print – it’s not just an image, but a physical record of labor, chemicals, and photographic equipment available at the time. It asks us to examine what photography *was* beyond artistic representation, specifically within Scotland. What do you think the act of documenting buildings signifies in a broader sense? Editor: I suppose it's about more than just architectural preservation. It's a cultural act. The choice of what is photographed... It reflects someone's values. The means available for its capture. And what's available to someone indicates social context. So it becomes a kind of social or cultural study itself? Curator: Precisely! And consider the socio-economic context. The rise of photography coincided with industrial expansion and urbanization. Annan’s choice to photograph this building might also imply an interest, resistance, or commentary on class and labor relations in 19th-century Scotland. How do you think Annan’s choice of a “landscape” style shapes how we perceive the buildings and, by extension, the lives associated with them? Editor: It suggests that this "landscape" style might not only be aesthetic. It becomes a loaded, or coded way to reference broader, even perhaps unsettling, contemporary issues about how labor, capital and class function within society. Curator: Exactly. Focusing on the materials, techniques, and socio-historical factors demystifies art. Editor: Right, and understanding that opens the door to seeing a photograph, a building even, as part of a much wider material and economic network.