Frankfort Cathedral c. 1860s

Curator: This photograph, "Frankfort Cathedral," comes to us from the lens of Francis Frith, a 19th-century pioneer of landscape photography. Editor: It’s funny, isn’t it? I feel this weird sense of stillness looking at it. Like the world's holding its breath. Curator: Frith, born in 1822, was quite the entrepreneur. He established a hugely successful photographic firm, documenting landscapes far and wide. Editor: The way the light kind of bleeds into everything... It's like time is suspended. Almost melancholy, but grand, you know? Curator: Absolutely. And in capturing these cityscapes, he wasn't just making pretty pictures, he was shaping the public's view of these places, their identity, through mass-produced images. Editor: It's true. Thinking about the reach, the power of his vision, makes it less still, in a way, and more like a deliberate observation, inviting us into a specific moment in Frankfurt's story. Curator: Exactly! It prompts us to think about whose stories get told and how those stories are then circulated and consumed. Editor: It does. It really does. Thank you.