Groepsportret van deelnemers aan een picknick onder de bomen bij Falicon Possibly 1859

Curator: What a find! This is a stereoscopic photograph titled "Groepsportret van deelnemers aan een picknick onder de bomen bij Falicon," which translates to "Group portrait of participants in a picnic under the trees at Falicon." It’s attributed to the London Stereoscopic Company, possibly from 1859. The photographic landscape teems with tiny people clustered beneath trees. My first thought is how romantic, like a secret garden gathering! Editor: My eye immediately went to that very formal arrangement against the natural backdrop! It feels a bit performative, staging leisure under what I imagine must have been very controlled conditions of 1850s photography. Were they *actually* having a carefree picnic, or participating in some aspirational fantasy about having picnics? Curator: Perhaps a bit of both? The very act of creating this kind of group portrait was a sign of upward mobility and increasing accessibility of leisure in photography at the time. It certainly provides us a glimpse of a constructed experience meant for an audience. Note the formal attire amidst a natural setting...there's definitely a narrative here. I imagine those taking part in the scene would want to display this as some symbol of their place in this newly accessible social strata! Editor: True. You see the shift in cultural attitude so visibly! I imagine photography becoming the tool that helps normal people imagine, quite literally see, their path in social movement. But how subversive it is to position everyone literally *under the trees*. This isn't about palatial gardens, so one wonders about how this new social layer uses visual media to redefine what elite leisure could even be? Curator: Exactly! This photographer gives us a new vernacular of sophistication that departs from royalty. To use trees is really brilliant for implying access and natural harmony, which becomes an emotional register rather than a monetary one! Even to our eyes, the image evokes an approachable moment of togetherness rather than one of distance. Editor: Thinking of what that did to notions of accessibility, who would’ve imagined? One sees almost every shade of aspiration within that single, subdued palette. Thanks to photographs like this, the democratization of both leisure and of the very *image* of leisure gets kickstarted into new life. Thanks for sharing this one. Curator: It really speaks volumes about accessibility when an image of it means so much. Food for thought, certainly!