Marseille 1860 - 1862

Edouard Baldus captured this panoramic view of Marseille using photography, a relatively new medium at the time. The image is presented as a diptych, and the pale sepia tones give the port city a somewhat muted and dreamlike quality. Baldus employs a wide format to capture the vastness of the landscape, emphasizing horizontal lines and geometric forms of the buildings that structure the composition. This focus on formal qualities transforms the industrial scene into an exercise in shape and line. The texture, meticulously rendered by the photographic process, allows us to closely examine the materiality of the buildings and the landscape, creating a sense of depth. The photograph challenges our understanding of representation, and invites us to reflect on the interplay between form and function, and on the changing landscape of industrializing Europe. This artwork destabilizes fixed notions of progress, urging us to consider the aesthetic and structural implications of the modern world.