Gezicht op de kathedraal van Chartres before 1886

Curator: This gelatin-silver print, taken sometime before 1886, presents a view of the Chartres Cathedral. It's printed on paper with ink. Quite striking, wouldn't you say? Editor: Oh, absolutely. It has a haunted quality to it. Like a phantom arising from the mist, shrouded in the whispers of centuries. Makes you want to write poetry, dark poetry, of course! Curator: I find it interesting to consider the industrial processes involved in creating photographic prints at that time. The confluence of the artist's intention, the chemical reactions on the gelatin silver, and the printing process itself...all these elements contribute to the final image. Editor: And all those unknown hands, those laborers in darkrooms bathed in crimson light, playing their parts... But beyond the 'how,' it is all about the 'what'—it’s about that sheer, awe-inspiring height and all that lace-like stonework aching for the heavens. There is a soul rising within the stones themselves. Curator: It is fascinating how photography, as a relatively new medium then, democratized access to architectural wonders like Chartres. Before, you’d need to journey there, commission a painting, or rely on engravings. The printed image brings the cathedral, in a way, into our hands, or, as it may be at that time, in more peoples’ hands, more easily to be mass consumed. Editor: Like holding a piece of time, fragile and precious. But there's also an alienation, isn't there? We see it removed, categorized, labeled and captured, devoid of wind and weather and human life... Yet the power remains, the bones of the sacred endure. It is a quiet triumph of form. Curator: Perhaps we see it differently because our relationships with material goods also diverge from what they would have been like back then. However, considering the photograph’s materiality alongside its cultural significance is really valuable. It avoids elevating it as just a purely aesthetic, individual vision. Editor: And to feel that echo resonating, of craft, of belief... well, that makes it hard to walk away untouched, isn’t it? It reminds me that cathedrals are stories etched in stone, in silver. Curator: Yes, and by focusing on its historical production context, it reminds us about art’s place within complex webs of labour and industry. Editor: So true... so true. Makes it hard to simply 'look' doesn't it? It insists that we dig.