Gezicht op de Vernal Fall in Yosemite Valley, Californië before 1886

Curator: This photograph, “Gezicht op de Vernal Fall in Yosemite Valley, Californië,” was taken by George Fiske before 1886, a gelatin silver print. The detail in the rocks is remarkable. What strikes you about it? Editor: It’s beautiful, in a classic, untouched wilderness kind of way. I am curious, considering that it's a gelatin silver print, how the specific materials used and the photographic process influenced the final image. What are your thoughts on the intersection of materiality and the depicted scene? Curator: It’s precisely that intersection which holds the key. This gelatin silver print is not merely a representation, but an artifact born of industry and burgeoning tourism. Consider Yosemite as a resource – both a subject for scientific study and a site for commercial exploitation through tourism. Fiske was deeply embedded in that commodification. Editor: So, you're saying the image, while seemingly a celebration of nature, is inherently linked to the labor involved in its production and its eventual consumption as a souvenir? Curator: Exactly. The materials themselves – the silver, the gelatin – speak to an industrial process. How easily could the materials be acquired? The social context allowed it. Fiske's choices weren’t about purely aesthetic decisions; it was intertwined with the park becoming accessible through railroad development, and Yosemite as a tourist commodity to purchase and bring back home. Editor: So it wasn’t simply about Fiske capturing a landscape, but also about producing something for consumption? Is the labor and process involved a commentary on it? Curator: In a way. By focusing on the photographic materials and social context we understand how this image of pristine wilderness became something manufactured and distributed. Editor: That’s given me a completely different way to consider landscape photography. The photo almost transforms from landscape, to product. Curator: Indeed, it shifts the perspective from celebrating 'untouched nature' to critically assessing its transformation into a consumable commodity.