Roeiboot op het water before 1899

Curator: "Roeiboot op het water," or "Rowboat on the Water," is a gelatin silver print from before 1899, housed at the Rijksmuseum. It's interesting how this tranquil landscape, seemingly captured with a modern eye, was made with a photographic process that already feels so distant. What stands out to you? Editor: I’m struck by how this image, though reproduced in a book, highlights photography’s unique position between art and document. It’s an image of labor but we only see the boat. What can you tell me about this piece through a materialist lens? Curator: Let's think about the gelatin silver print itself. It speaks to a specific mode of production— the darkroom, the chemical processes, the skilled labor involved in creating a reproducible image. How does the presence of the text around it shift the meaning? Editor: Good question! I think by placing this picture in this journal of photographic techniques it loses some of its art value to serve a more functional role, maybe to show people how these things are made at the turn of the century. Do you think that context could diminish how we value it aesthetically? Curator: Not diminish, necessarily, but redirect. Instead of just considering the image as a composition, we start to consider it as an object produced within a particular economic and social framework. Consider the journal itself – who was its intended audience? What does its existence tell us about the commodification of photography at the time? How does this interplay with class? Editor: So, by focusing on the materials and the means of production, we're not just looking at the image, but also the entire system that made its creation and distribution possible. Fascinating! Curator: Precisely. It's about acknowledging the labor, the technology, and the social context embedded within a seemingly simple landscape.