Gezicht op restanten van het forum te Pompeï met op de achtergrond de Vesuvius c. 1860 - 1900

This photograph of the ruins of Pompeii, with Mount Vesuvius in the background, was taken by Giorgio Sommer in the 19th century. Sommer was a German photographer who established a studio in Naples, catering to the burgeoning tourist trade. Photography, at this time, was a complex, alchemical process. Glass plate negatives were coated with light-sensitive emulsion, exposed in the camera, and then developed in a darkroom. The resulting images, like this one, were prized for their sharp detail and tonal range, even though they lack color. Sommer's photographs were essentially a form of mass production. He and his assistants would have taken many versions of the same image to sell to different customers. This view of Pompeii catered to a fascination with the ancient world, but it also speaks to the rise of tourism and the commodification of culture. In its own way, this photograph embodies the power of the industrial era to reproduce and circulate images on an unprecedented scale.