Gezicht op de Strada Mercurio te Pompeï, Italië 1857 - 1875

Curator: Standing before us is Giorgio Sommer's gelatin-silver print, "Gezicht op de Strada Mercurio te Pompeï, Italië," dating from sometime between 1857 and 1875. What catches your eye about this depiction of a Pompeian street? Editor: The desolation. The sheer, quiet desolation. You know, seeing an image of a street that once pulsed with life, now silent under a monochrome sky… it's almost unbearably poignant. Curator: Precisely. Photography in the 19th century offered a new means to capture and disseminate images of ancient sites, like Pompeii, which gripped the imagination of Europe. Notice how the framing focuses our attention on the archway; it becomes a kind of symbolic threshold. Editor: It really does feel like a portal to another time. And the figure standing to the left... I wonder if that's Sommer himself. It injects this jolt of human presence into what would otherwise be an abandoned stage set. Curator: Likely a tourist. Including figures in these architectural shots became quite common. It helped to establish a sense of scale, but also emphasized the ongoing human connection to these historical places. Beyond documentation, consider also that it suggests mortality, transience. Editor: Absolutely. Thinking about the people who walked that street, bargained in those shops... the casual everyday reality swallowed whole. It's enough to give you the chills, isn’t it? Especially when you factor in the relatively recent innovation of the photograph itself as a recording technology! Curator: A new medium grappling with an ancient subject. The gelatin-silver process would have rendered incredible detail – allowing for this image to circulate and fuel broader ideas about Roman life, death, and archaeological discovery. The past suddenly available in great, sharp resolution. Editor: I appreciate how stark it all is, too. There's an almost brutal honesty in how the light renders every stone, every shadow. No romantic idealization here, just the bare bones of history. That honesty is what I find so affecting. It sticks with you. Curator: Indeed. Sommer's photograph gives us more than just a glimpse of Pompeii, doesn't it? Editor: More than that. It holds space for a conversation across centuries. A pretty effective photograph all told, right?