Remains in process of excavation 1896

Editor: This albumen print, “Remains in process of excavation” by Henry William Cave, circa 1896, is presented as an image within a personal sketchbook. It's intriguing how a documentary style blends with the intimate format of a sketchbook. What's your take on it? Curator: I see this albumen print as a compelling intersection of photographic technology, manual labor, and colonial enterprise. The albumen print itself was a relatively recent process, a kind of industrialization of image making. And we see the remains of a structure, evidence of manual excavation, all documented within what you correctly observe is the intimate, hand-bound form of a sketchbook. What does this juxtaposition suggest to you? Editor: I guess it makes me consider the labor behind both the creation of the image and the excavation itself. Was photography viewed as work then? Curator: Precisely! The very act of capturing this image – the selection of materials, the developing process, the printing – reflects the labor inherent in photography's material production. And that ties into the depiction of manual excavation. The two labors become linked. How does Cave’s framing within a sketchbook, something so portable and reproducible, play into the circulation of these images and the ideas they represent? Editor: So, it’s about how the photograph, as an object made through specific processes and consumed within a colonial context, tells a story about labor and control? The material object is key to interpreting the social and cultural context. Curator: Yes, exactly. The albumen print is not merely a window onto the scene but also evidence of the means of its production, embedded within networks of colonial power. Editor: That's really interesting. I wouldn’t have thought about the physical print being so closely tied to these wider concepts. Curator: It forces us to confront the materiality of representation itself, doesn't it? It's about uncovering layers of meaning through careful attention to the art object itself.