Gezicht op Bishop's Palace te Lichfield before 1870

This is a photograph of Bishop's Palace in Lichfield, made by John Benjamin Stone in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. Stone was deeply engaged with the techniques of industrial production, recognizing the camera's ability to capture precise details. Photography in this era involved a complex chemistry of silver halides and a long, laborious process in the darkroom. These materials, processed with skilled labor, allowed Stone to capture the texture of the stone, the verdant foliage, and the architectural details of the Palace. The photograph itself is mounted within a book, facing a printed page. Consider the materiality of the book itself—paper made from wood pulp, printed with ink, bound with thread and glue. It represents an entire system of production and distribution, an increasingly industrialized world. Stone embraced this modern means of documentation, using it to preserve images of a rapidly changing society. The choice of photography, mass produced and portable, democratized image-making, challenging the traditional dominance of painting and sculpture. Stone's work invites us to consider the social and economic implications of technological advancements in art.