Pimpelmees op tak van struik c. 1870 - 1940

This black and white photograph entitled ‘Pimpelmees op tak van struik’ depicts a great tit bird on a branch of a bush, and was captured by Adolphe Burdet. Though undated, the origins of this image can be situated in a late 19th, early 20th century context, when photography was becoming a tool for the scientific documentation of the natural world. Consider the cultural values that might have shaped this image. What does it tell us about the relationship between humans and the environment during the period in which it was made? Does the act of photographing nature change the way that we understand it? To explore these questions further, museum archives and historical texts may reveal more about the role of photography in shaping our understanding of the natural world. The meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.