Leporelloalbum met foto's van Den Haag c. 1865 - 1870

Curator: Here we have something quite special: a "Leporelloalbum met foto's van Den Haag," dating from around 1865 to 1870. It's a concertina album, filled with albumen prints. Editor: Wow, a souvenir album! I immediately get a sense of nostalgia. It’s small, intimate... like peering into a perfectly preserved past. Curator: Exactly! These albums were popular amongst tourists and those who wished to remember their visit to a place. The albumen prints give the images a rich, sepia tone, lending a sense of romanticism, even to everyday scenes. Editor: There’s something melancholy about that sepia, though. It speaks to a bygone era, a time when travel was a grand affair. The photography captures Den Haag not as a bustling modern city, but as a serene, almost dreamlike landscape. Curator: And it's worth remembering the political weight these images carried. Cityscapes, meticulously captured and circulated, reinforced notions of national identity and civic pride. Think of the social standing it provided to be able to purchase something of the sort! Editor: I suppose it would have made quite the status symbol to bring a beautifully rendered view of this up-and-coming metropolis home! Curator: It would have been. It gives you pause to think about how people used to connect with places through crafted images, right? It is more intimate than simply snapping and sharing photos on our phones, and infinitely more formal. Editor: It really does, in a tangible, precious object. We take instantaneous images for granted, but to flip through these carefully created, painstakingly-rendered photographs is to see Den Haag with intention. Curator: Perhaps this souvenir is as much a memory trigger now, not only for the original owner, but for us reflecting on what photographs can represent. Editor: I’m completely bewitched; I want to step through time. Curator: A lovely notion on which to end.