Berglandschap met meanderende rivier; de Alpen c. 1860 - 1880

Achille Quinet made this stereograph of an alpine scene sometime in the mid-19th century. The photograph presents a landscape of majestic mountains and a meandering river, capturing the romantic allure of nature that captivated artists during this period. Stereographs like this one were a popular form of entertainment and education, allowing viewers to experience a sense of depth and immersion. In a rapidly industrializing world, such images offered a vicarious escape into untouched landscapes. But we should pause and ask, escape for whom? The rising middle classes had the leisure time and disposable income to contemplate such natural beauty, but the working classes did not. Here the photograph flattens the experience of actually moving through the landscape, it becomes a picturesque and passive activity, divorced from the labor required to traverse the mountain and the river, a labor that would have been familiar to many at the time. This removal of the body from the landscape creates a visual hierarchy, where some get to enjoy, and others only work.