Gezicht op de top van de Rigi 1869

This stereoscopic photograph, titled 'Gezicht op de top van de Rigi', was made by Florentin Charnaux. The photographic print, carefully mounted on card, would have been made by a technician in his studio. Consider the contrast between the seeming ease of the photographic process, versus the labour of climbing to the top of the Rigi in the Swiss Alps. These early landscape photographs were prized for their seemingly objective views of exotic locations. However, the very act of capturing such vistas was bound up with colonial expansion, the growth of tourism, and a fascination with capturing and owning views of the natural world. And, of course, the production of these images also relied on the labor of countless others. The photograph itself is only the final product of the extraction of minerals for photographic chemicals, the labour of factory workers to create photographic paper, and the toil of those who transported these materials around the globe. By attending to these conditions of making, we can understand the true complexity behind this seemingly simple photograph.