Pisa_ The Leaning Tower c. 1855

Curator: What a delightfully precarious photograph! Editor: Indeed. We're looking at "Pisa: The Leaning Tower," an albumen print dating back to about 1855 by Enrico Van Lint, currently residing here at the Städel Museum. It’s amazing how something so off-kilter can feel so iconic. Curator: Iconic is the perfect word. It's more than just a building, isn't it? The Leaning Tower—especially as captured in this albumen print—becomes a symbol of resilience, almost comical defiance of gravity. Like that one friend who always shows up late, but you love them anyway. Editor: The lean itself becomes a powerful symbol. Consider the instability – it hints at fragility, vulnerability, the possibility of collapse. And yet, it stands. This resonates on so many levels; it speaks to our own precarious existence, the way civilizations rise and, potentially, fall. This slightly imperfect photographic method only seems to bolster its image. Curator: Precisely! This pre-digital photograph has an authenticity and tangible essence you only see at an imperfectly captured moment, versus perfectly polished images we have today. There’s a ghostly quality to this print. Time almost seems suspended—a fleeting moment eternalized. It suggests all that endures has probably endured hardships along the way, or had a little lean to it. Editor: Right! The perspective is also fascinating, as if the photographer is on the cusp of witnessing a moment. What endures is cultural memory—we look at this tower and instantly think "Italy," "history," even "human error." But there’s something poetic in that imperfection, isn't there? It transforms a blunder into a testament of time. Curator: Oh, utterly. A monument to embracing our stumbles. This reminds me that our perceived imperfections can actually be our greatest assets. Now, let’s look at this another way—it could also become a metaphor to simply embracing imperfection as beauty? It all comes to mind because I like to be late too... Editor: So, we began seeing this architectural wonder in silvered albumen print as defiance; it feels, by the end of our chat, almost like an accidental mirror, doesn't it? Perhaps that’s why we love the Leaning Tower of Pisa, in this photograph, as we now carry the symbol. It's a bit of ourselves we're seeing in it.