[Shipping in the Hooghly near Fort, Calcutta] 1850s

Curator: What strikes me first about this image is the sheer density of the composition. All of those masts receding into the mist... a very painterly effect for a photograph. Editor: Indeed. Let’s situate it: what we’re looking at is "[Shipping in the Hooghly near Fort, Calcutta]," taken sometime in the 1850s. The photographer here is Captain R. B. Hill. Curator: So, shipping in Calcutta during the height of British power. The sails read to me almost like an assertion of dominance—a veritable forest asserting their presence. The mist softens that claim though; veils it somehow. Editor: I agree, there's a potent symbolism here. Ships historically function as potent emblems, charting not only trade but also cultural exchange and often, unfortunately, conquest. Given the "orientalist" style that this photograph inhabits, it feels like the photograph uses these vessels as symbols of global power. Curator: Absolutely, the presence of the fort itself can't be overlooked, though nearly everything else in the photo overtakes it. Editor: To think about the means of production, the creation of this image is quite interesting. These photographs would be circulated back in Europe, becoming part of a larger system of representing and understanding the colonized world. Consider what this photo meant to someone viewing it in London, for instance. It’s an artifact created within a structure of power and shaped by imperial goals. Curator: That’s a great point. And it leads me back to the symbolism: it makes me think of the many ways in which these images, these technologies, were deployed as a form of control – an attempt to categorize the people in the name of power. The light almost seems to obscure a certain amount of truth. Editor: The sepia tones imbue it with a kind of nostalgic or historical aura too, which makes it harder to critique but more evocative, perhaps, as well. These ships once teemed with activity, connected to so many people... Curator: It’s fascinating to examine how the symbols represented and their construction in reality often are miles apart in photographs such as this one. Editor: Yes. So much to unpack in one photograph... and that’s exactly what makes this worth pondering in the gallery.