High Street from the Cross 1868

Curator: Today, we're looking at Thomas Annan’s photograph, "High Street from the Cross," taken in 1868. It’s currently part of the collection at the Art Institute of Chicago. Editor: It's… surprisingly ghostly. The soft focus and muted tones give it a very dreamlike quality, despite the rigidity of the architectural forms. Curator: The composition is carefully structured. Notice the converging lines of the street, leading the eye to the horizon, and the placement of the clock tower as a strong vertical element anchoring the left side of the image. Annan used his lens to highlight the structural elegance, even with the city growing so rapidly around him. Editor: I wonder about Annan’s choice to document this specific street corner. The High Street was undergoing significant changes at the time due to urban development and infrastructure projects. Photographing it seems a very direct way to show Glasgow society its changes, how it was developing—for better or worse. Curator: Precisely. Photography was increasingly being used as a documentary tool, capturing moments of social transformation. The pictorialist style here softened that raw, documentary edge somewhat. Note how the details are slightly blurred, giving the scene an ethereal quality. Editor: The light really seems to be filtered through something… a scrim, or maybe it's just pollution. Whatever it is, it obscures what I'd consider the "truth" of the moment to soften its impact. Perhaps he was idealizing it. Curator: It makes you wonder how viewers in Annan’s time perceived this portrayal, doesn't it? Were they looking for accurate representations, or did they also find beauty and something to contemplate about the way things were rapidly changing. It is a poignant mix of objective record and subjective interpretation. Editor: A haunting premonition of modern Glasgow perhaps? A way to pause progress just for a bit and see the landscape transform, but hold some part of its memory too? Curator: I think both interpretations resonate within this singular frame, this document from a time of transformation. Editor: It encourages a quiet reflection, doesn’t it, this image? I am leaving here more thoughtful.