Gezicht op oostzijde van de Haven te Schoonhoven 1882

Lodewijk Hendrikus Serré captured this view of the Oostzijde Haven in Schoonhoven using photography, a relatively new medium at the time. Photography, though seemingly immediate, demanded a whole chain of production. This print would have begun with the preparation of a glass plate, coated with light-sensitive emulsion. The exposure itself would have been relatively long, perhaps requiring the people in the view to stand very still. Then the negative would be developed and printed, likely using albumen paper, itself a manufactured product derived from egg whites. Consider too the social context implied in the photograph. The buildings, the canal, the clothing of the figures – all speak to a specific moment in the economic development of the Netherlands. Photography, like the industrial revolution itself, changed not only what we see, but how we understand the world around us.