Bergbeklimmers op de Lage Grindelwaldgletsjer 1896 - 1897

Curator: My breath just caught in my throat. There's something so serene, yet unsettling, about that vast expanse of ice and those tiny figures upon it. A vast, blue dreamscape that swallows you whole. Editor: That’s an interesting interpretation. "Bergbeklimmers op de Lage Grindelwaldgletsjer," or "Mountaineers on the Lower Grindelwald Glacier" as it translates from the Dutch, presents a fascinating lens on late 19th-century engagement with the natural world. We are viewing what seems to be a gelatine silver print, crafted between 1896 and 1897, brought to us by Photochrom Zurich and housed in the Rijksmuseum collection. Curator: "Engagement" feels like such an...academic word for something that sparks such raw, visceral awe! But those early photographic processes, the way they caught light and shadow—there's a certain haunting to it. It's more than documentation; it's almost like conjuring a memory, one that seems oddly tinted. Editor: Precisely. This wasn't about mere documentation. The "photochrom" process was often hand-tinted, adding another layer of subjectivity to what appears initially to be an objective rendering of the landscape. Who decided which areas should be bluer, and which whiter? How might their aesthetic choices reinforce a dominant gaze onto these landscapes and these figures? What colonial dynamics were in play when deciding who gets to ascend these glacial environments and have their exploits memorialized? Curator: Okay, you're pulling me in— the colours do strike me now as a little 'off', a little too clean. What sort of climbing conditions, do you imagine? And how about these almost 'everyman' figures; are they meant to be explorers? Adventurers? Tourists simply making their ascent in search of sublime experiences. Editor: Yes, it’s essential to question the implied narratives and the unspoken politics of adventure embedded here. In 19th century there was this whole Romantic trope surrounding mountaineering. The 'heroic' figure conquering nature—often a stand-in for other forms of dominance of colonial and industrial expansion. Curator: I think, stripping all those 'heavy' metaphors out - these brave folks had an absolutely wild time! Scaling a glacier! Editor: Of course, it makes one appreciate all of our access and safe paths. To imagine something entirely untrodden gives me…perspective!