['Treasury', 'Reading room', 'Old laboratory', 'Gymnasium'] before 1882

Curator: So, let's have a look. Here, we're presented with a print showing several photos attributed to James Notman. Dating from before 1882, it depicts a series of buildings—Treasury, Reading Room, Old Laboratory, and Gymnasium. Editor: Well, the first thing that strikes me is this strange melancholy, even with such stoic architectural subjects. They seem trapped, pinned down on the page like specimens. Curator: Interesting, isn’t it? The landscape style in photography gives it a sense of expansiveness. Although confined in print, one can get lost within those façades, those buildings could speak volumes. I feel an acute sense of being lost in thought while looking at it. Editor: That "expansiveness," though—doesn't it feel somewhat ironic? Here we have spaces of learning and, potentially, liberation, reduced to static images within a book. Are we preserving knowledge, or just embalming it? These are institutions built on a legacy, and who has access to them? Who writes their history? Curator: Absolutely, I can see how you can arrive there. The monochromatic palette surely feeds into this feel. Maybe Notman aimed for that solemn feeling. It is compelling; one has to admit. These structures whisper something of aspiration, and human limits, all at once. Editor: They also reek of exclusion and elitism. Spaces such as these are sites where societal power structures become so material, so real. We might think of access to information and education as neutral, but in fact, they reinforce existing imbalances, and a single image does not show enough of that context, the reality of its social framework. Curator: A powerful perspective, absolutely. The artwork is both inviting and thought-provoking. It really stays with you. Editor: Indeed. And reminds us to ask more questions about what it shows… and what it hides.