Leporelloalbum met 12 foto's van Amsterdam c. 1860 - 1900

Curator: What strikes me immediately about this photograph album is its intensely ornamental cover. "Leporelloalbum met 12 foto's van Amsterdam," dating circa 1860 to 1900, currently resides in the Rijksmuseum. It features mixed media, including albumen prints, collage elements, and foil embossing on paper. Editor: The cover is a deeply tactile and intriguing introduction to Amsterdam. I wonder who would purchase such a book? Was it marketed to wealthy tourists, offering a curated view of the city's celebrated landmarks? The decorative art elements create a filter and feel as if we are not just looking at the pictures, but buying into a whole imagined vision. Curator: Absolutely. These souvenir albums played a key role in shaping perceptions of Amsterdam, particularly for tourists. The careful arrangement of images, coupled with the decorative cover, reinforced a specific narrative about the city's identity and historical significance, targeting those visitors. This speaks to a much larger history of commodifying places and memories in that era. Editor: It's interesting how photography, as a seemingly objective medium, is framed here by decorative choices that reflect a certain aesthetic ideal. I am interested to see whether it showed any counter-narratives from more marginalized people and their relationship with the city's growing industrialization and global identity at the time. I think that even small details could offer up something that might not at first be visible in the photographs themselves. Curator: That is a crucial observation, of course. Souvenir photographs tend to valorize specific elements of the existing societal power dynamics by offering up these nostalgic scenes to create what some call a false collective past. As this relates to the broader historical context, these kinds of "objective" photographic documents played an important part in colonialist efforts, where idealized visions were promoted abroad. Editor: Looking closely, it would be easy to romanticize that. However, seeing an object like this displayed prominently, the goal isn't just to look at the pretty images, but also to critically ask why those are the scenes offered and also who that presentation serves. We have to consider the labor practices to build Amsterdam that do not have visibility here. Curator: That is well-stated. It also invites reflection about who can own and control representation in image production. A deeper interrogation also calls on museum institutions to address gaps in archival narratives by challenging traditional presentation, and highlighting obscured community representation. Editor: It's about seeing beyond the picturesque façade, and examining whose stories are missing in our souvenirs. Thank you for contextualizing how those choices create both a memory and an experience for some at the exclusion of others.