Gezicht op de Monte Pellegrino vanaf Palermo 1865 - 1875

Curator: This is Giovanni Crupi’s “Gezicht op de Monte Pellegrino vanaf Palermo,” a gelatin-silver print, dating from somewhere between 1865 and 1875. Editor: There’s a muted stillness about it, almost like a watercolor. The composition is strikingly horizontal; the eye is drawn across the textured foreground to the mountain in the distance. Curator: Absolutely, and think about when this was taken. Photography was still evolving, a somewhat rare medium in Southern Italy. Crupi, based in Taormina, positioned himself as a recorder of Sicilian life, often framing scenes to highlight the picturesque qualities for visiting tourists. Editor: The framing does guide your eye. The textures—the rocks, the fishing nets—create these leading lines directing you towards that distant, almost ethereal mountain. There's something incredibly balanced about the arrangement. Curator: And note the placement of the fishermen; they are integral, reinforcing a view of traditional labor and its relation to the landscape, which, even now, carries specific socio-political baggage. The land and sea are their resources. This is meant to say something about their culture. Editor: That’s interesting. For me, their poses, distributed as they are across the plane, function almost like a rhythm. The darker tones of their figures are punctuating the lighter hues. Curator: True. They’re not mere figures though. They reflect the historical context; they present a picture of an industrious, somewhat romanticized local life aimed towards a viewing public hungry for representations of “authentic” Sicily. This photograph participates in building a historical record, for good or ill. Editor: But that focus on capturing reality, that clarity of light on the nets… it gives you an amazing sense of depth! It pushes the mountain into a palpable distance. Even without knowing the social or historical context, that formal balance is deeply compelling. Curator: I agree. This is a wonderful example of how even a simple photograph of a landscape contains a complex story about the interaction between art, society, and the emerging photographic industry in 19th century Sicily. Editor: Yes, and as we consider the landscape through the balance and visual techniques Crupi uses, it underscores just how evocative formal choices are to constructing such narratives.