Upper Saranac Lake 1893

Curator: Welcome. We are looking at Seneca Ray Stoddard's "Upper Saranac Lake," a gelatin silver print from 1893. What is your initial reaction to this photograph? Editor: Immediately, it's the delicate tonality that strikes me. A silvery, almost melancholic stillness hangs over the landscape, and this impression contrasts directly with the mechanical printing processes involved. It is rather faint as though time is blurring it. Curator: The choice of gelatin silver reflects a specific movement in photography. It's a move toward easily mass-producible, standardized images, diverging from the more handcrafted processes used earlier in the 19th century. Stoddard was making and marketing photos, so what does it mean to portray this scene? Editor: Given Stoddard’s ties to the Hudson River School aesthetic, I see a continuity of earlier themes through this lens, which offers both a romantic vision of the American landscape, but also speaks about our desire to capture and consume it. This particular locale would suggest something of the ‘rest cure’ retreats, the symbolism here of recovery, and reconnecting with nature Curator: The book, which this plate appears in, signals a wider context about consumption too. Printed for a New York state commission for forestry and hunting, this plate shows both what’s left after intense periods of deforestation alongside spaces designated for recovery from work, urbanism, and life stress. Stoddard printed many photos about how nature both benefitted people economically and spiritually Editor: Do you mean its visual vocabulary—the lake receding into a soft, hazy distance; the framing trees—that they evoke a kind of visual piety? The gelatin print emphasizes the light, transforming the scene into an almost ethereal experience but also as a set of services or a place of productivity.. Curator: It certainly plays a significant role. I notice that in many images, the gelatin acts not just as a means of production, but almost as a veil, creating a remove through which nature is encountered.. Almost the same thing that reading it out of the book in 2024 does. Editor: Yes, absolutely. It layers meaning upon meaning. It has certainly shifted my perspective on how this seemingly straightforward landscape engages with ideas about industrialization and the emotional impact of "nature." Curator: And for me, looking at the work with the specific materiality of photographic reproducibility in mind, I am reminded of how constructed and culturally contingent even these 'natural' visions can be.