First Fall, Lick Brook before 1869

Curator: Here we have a photograph titled "First Fall, Lick Brook" by J.C. Burritt, dating to before 1869. It's presented as a gelatin-silver print within the pages of a book. Editor: It strikes me as ethereal. The light seems to embrace the falling water, almost veiling the rock face behind it. It’s remarkably textured for a photograph of this era. Curator: It's fascinating to consider landscape photography like this in the mid-19th century. How did Burritt’s work contribute to broader discussions about environmentalism or westward expansion, especially considering the cultural context? How does this portrayal of untouched nature serve those ideologies? Editor: Considering the materials used and the labor involved, creating these early photographs wasn’t as simple as clicking a button. The whole process – from preparing the chemicals to the printing – it reflects a very different relationship with the landscape, more direct, more immediate. The work embodies nature but, crucially, as a commodity. How does this piece circulate? How is it consumed? Curator: It definitely offers insight into 19th-century social and cultural values, where depictions of nature, and access to those depictions, became a privilege and a signifier of class. The book form, I'd imagine, turns this wilderness scene into an object for personal consumption and study within domestic spaces. And even access to that form would certainly vary. Editor: I’d agree. We should think about this particular photograph as both an aesthetic object and as a material one. Look at the page itself; you see evidence of use, of handling. How many hands turned this page, how was the water presented to this imagined group of people? Curator: Placing it within this context highlights the complex interplay of nature, art, and society, underlining how the very act of creating and circulating images impacts our understanding and interaction with the world around us. It invites a lot of conversations about who gets to represent nature and to whom is it being represented. Editor: Absolutely. It's an engagement with the environment that’s inherently bound to its material manifestation and societal reach, encouraging us to view “First Fall, Lick Brook” beyond simply aesthetic terms.