Place du Carrousel te Parijs, gezien vanaf het Palais des Tuileries c. 1860 - 1871

Curator: Let's discuss "Place du Carrousel te Parijs, gezien vanaf het Palais des Tuileries," a gelatin-silver print photograph captured by Ernest Eléonor Pierre Lamy circa 1860-1871. It gives a remarkable vista. Editor: The first thing that strikes me is the imposing emptiness. The stark perspective amplifies the grand architecture, lending the scene a surprisingly eerie, almost ghost-like quality. Curator: Indeed. Lamy's process of collodion emulsion on glass and the resulting print allow us a look into how photography at the time served the expansion of travel culture for the rising bourgeois class. Reproductions of cities, easily collected. Editor: Yes, and thinking about this cityscape... The arch in the center anchors everything. Historically, arches signify triumph and authority, but here, combined with the hazy image, there's a sense of faded glory. Perhaps hinting at the shifting political landscape of the period? Curator: Very insightful. One might think of the symbolic order on display: this is not just documentation but the promotion of national grandeur via emerging media technologies. Editor: Precisely. This evokes Romanticism, with a twist. We’re presented with civic ideals, through symbolic structures but mediated by new printing processes for popular dissemination. It hints at underlying anxieties about shifting societal power structures reflected through Lamy’s capture of place. Curator: Fascinating. The materiality of photography becomes a tool to propagate civic ideologies. Editor: To consider Lamy’s picture more deeply suggests, the photo immortalizes this vista, transforming these structures of authority—through the symbols like the arch, a gate perhaps of new modernity —into emblems for reflection. It’s so fascinating how it combines the immediate impact of an iconic vista. Curator: Thank you for this exchange. A perfect combination to allow appreciating Lamy's art! Editor: I completely agree. Thanks.