Natural Bridge, VA 1875 - 1899

Curator: Standing before us is an intriguing stereoscopic albumen print. It seems to date from the late 19th century and captures the Natural Bridge in Virginia. Editor: It’s like stepping into another world! The stark contrast between the shadowy foreground and that almost ethereal light pouring through the arch—there’s a mystical quality about it. And it has this double thing, that just makes it even better... Curator: Exactly! These stereoscopic prints were all the rage, meant to simulate three-dimensionality. Looking at it now, though, it speaks to me about accessibility, in terms of mass production. Here, photography documents nature’s monument to make the experience of that place democratically reproducible. Editor: True! Although... something about the material, the albumen print, adds a strange beauty, a fragile almost impermanent feeling that this solid object is somehow transient... And there’s something beautiful too about the layers and labor that create albumen, and here, an industry made around spectacular nature... Did you see the hand-applied color too? Curator: Oh, it's barely visible in the aged sepia tones now, isn’t it? In this kind of pictorialism, one starts to question: what do we lose in turning nature into spectacle? Editor: Right? Is it exploiting nature, or is it like capturing its very soul for all to enjoy? There is labor here, an unseen element. Curator: Yes, from the workers in the mines to the individuals processing chemicals. But still the landscape resists any taming gesture and in some way remains wild... I appreciate that tension between capture and wilderness... What a process... What a final thing. Editor: What I carry away with me is that odd and incredible process! This odd meeting of heavy geological stuff, with these transient impressions that capture our memories.