Interior of the Mosque, Saint Sophia, Constantinople 

Philip Harris Giddens made this etching of the interior of the Mosque, Saint Sophia, in Constantinople using acid to corrode lines into a metal plate, which was then inked and printed onto paper. The fineness of line achieved speaks to the artist’s great technical control and the repetitive process of marking the plate with tiny, precise strokes. Look closely and you can see the intricate details of the architecture, the play of light and shadow, and the sense of immense scale. However, this highly developed skill sits uncomfortably with its social context. Etchings like this were often made as reproductions, catering to a growing market for affordable art. While Giddens’s artistry is evident, his labor was also part of a larger system of cultural production, where images could be widely distributed and consumed. Considering the amount of work involved, we can see how such a print participates in a much wider and more complex story about the relationship between art, labor, and commerce.