Cortège d'un mariage, Cochinchine 1866

Editor: This albumen print, “Cortège d'un mariage, Cochinchine,” taken by Emile Gsell in 1866, really gives you a sense of the time period with its sepia tones. It feels almost staged, very formal. What do you see as particularly important about this photograph? Curator: I see a work deeply embedded in the visual politics of colonialism. Gsell, a Frenchman, photographing a wedding procession in Cochinchina, now part of Vietnam, frames the event through a very specific Western lens. It's less about accurately depicting the lived experience and more about constructing an image of the "Orient" for European consumption. Editor: So you're saying that Gsell's photograph catered to European expectations of what a wedding in Cochinchina "should" look like? Curator: Precisely. The composition, the way the figures are arranged, even the details included or excluded, contribute to a narrative of exoticism and difference, reinforcing existing power dynamics. Photography, at that time, wasn't just a means of documentation, it was a tool for shaping perceptions and legitimizing colonial control. Do you notice how the subjects seem almost passively on display? Editor: I do. They're lined up as if for inspection, and you can feel that distance. Does the photograph’s display in the Met change its meaning at all? Curator: Absolutely. The museum is never a neutral space. Placing this photograph within the Met's collection gives it a certain authority and further circulates the historically skewed perspective it offers. It also invites us to consider how museums themselves participate in shaping narratives around culture and identity. Editor: That makes me rethink how I originally viewed it! I guess seeing something beautiful doesn't mean it is neutral. Thank you! Curator: It's important to constantly question the context in which we view art, and how historical power structures influence what we see, and how we interpret it.