Verlengde Gonggrijpstraat 1903 - 1910

Curator: What immediately strikes me about this gelatin-silver print is its atmosphere, this almost palpable sense of humidity and quiet. Editor: Yes, that's definitely there. This is “Verlengde Gonggrijpstraat,” taken sometime between 1903 and 1910 by Hendrik Doijer. A street view presented through the lens of pictorialism and realism, that feels like a bridge between worlds. Curator: "Bridge" is such an evocative word here. Looking at this path, almost a glowing ribbon cutting through the thick vegetation, I think about the labor involved in constructing and maintaining even the suggestion of a road through what must have been an intense, almost overwhelming landscape. Editor: Absolutely, there's such a tension isn’t there? This striving for order, rendered in silver halides, the artist working within a particular, manufactured materiality. It also captures the feeling that something deeper lurks behind every leaf, you know? This makes me wonder about the choices Hendrik Doijer made regarding composition, and the exposure settings he used to bring such incredible tonal variation. The gelatin-silver process allowed for sharper images, wider tonal ranges, than earlier processes but also speak about the growth and industrialism during this period. Curator: It absolutely does. One can almost feel the exploitation behind the production. These raw materials aren’t from anywhere and yet it manages to be so evocative. Editor: Perhaps, by showing us a landscape both tamed and untamed, he acknowledges that tension? Perhaps Doijer is subtly asking us to consider what it costs to carve out "progress." Even the choice of medium itself speaks volumes— the controlled precision of photography versus the wildness of nature, so beautifully blurred at edges to achieve certain softness of effect. It really does transport one into this humid other world. Curator: A manufactured emotion delivered by technological advance... Food for thought. Editor: Precisely, a whisper of something profound... And also about lunch?