Ingang van het Élysée-paleis, Parijs 1858 - 1875

Curator: Well, isn't this just neat! I’m getting a distinctly antique feeling looking at this image. Editor: Indeed, the piece we're looking at is a gelatin-silver print dating roughly from 1858 to 1875, titled "Ingang van het Élysée-paleis, Parijs," or "Entrance to the Élysée Palace, Paris" in English. The artist is currently listed as anonymous. It is presented here in a stereo card format. Curator: Stereo, as in, 3D? Wow. You know, it feels like walking straight back into old Paris. So proper, so...posed. I’m sort of waiting for someone to break into a waltz! Editor: Think about what went into producing this image at the time. The labour, the photographic chemistry, the evolving technologies, the sheer will to represent space in such detail for popular consumption. This was new. Gelatin silver printing made possible cheaper reproductions and wider distribution of images. Curator: Cheap perhaps, but still, so much grandeur for mass consumption, yes? I'm caught by the almost obsessive detail of the facade...I see rows of windows staring out blankly. There's a ghostliness to it all. Editor: Exactly, and the photographic process, which at that time needed to be fairly lengthy, means there’s an enforced emptiness of people captured here—that absence speaks volumes. Curator: Hmmm, very true. Paris emptied by technology itself. A kind of…proto-surrealist premonition! Editor: It highlights the intersection of progress and preservation and how photographic realism contributes to understanding social and economic change within the 19th century. Curator: Well said! Suddenly those staring windows are not blank, they're like little eyes full of a brand-new kind of looking, a modern look. And I can't help feeling this has a contemporary ring as the original maker remains unnamed… a mysterious flaneur behind the camera. It speaks about the anonymous artistry inherent in crafting such realistic and beautiful scenes in silver gelatin. Editor: I agree. Thinking about all those different materials coming together—it transforms how one understands an iconic political location from simply the entrance to the Palace to something much, much more.