Gezicht op Capri, Italië 1857 - 1914

Curator: This is Giorgio Sommer’s "View of Capri, Italy", a daguerreotype photograph taken sometime between 1857 and 1914. Editor: The landscape has an impressive sense of depth, and the architecture melds into the landscape as if part of it. What strikes you about this cityscape? Curator: Think about the power structures implicit in how photographic views of Capri were circulated at this time. Capri, by the late 19th century, became a tourist destination, frequented by wealthy Europeans seeking the picturesque. Editor: How would photographs fit into that? Curator: Precisely! These images weren't neutral. They actively constructed and marketed an image of Capri as a timeless, almost mythical place for a consuming, primarily northern European audience. Consider who had access to these photographs. Editor: It definitely speaks to an upper class audience of travellers. Are you suggesting Sommer may have played a part in that commercialisation? Curator: Indeed. He ran a very successful studio catering to that very market, helping shape visual culture of the island. Who is given agency and how the scene is arranged and for whom really illustrates who Sommer thought the viewer was. Editor: So, this tranquil image, is also an artifact embedded in power and class dynamics, advertising Capri's allure to the wealthy tourist of the time. Fascinating! Curator: Precisely. It makes one reflect on the narratives that photographs, even landscapes, construct and perpetuate. Editor: I will never be able to look at historical images of tourist locations the same way again. Thanks for your insights.