Restanten van een theater in Pompeï

This photograph of the remains of a theater in Pompeii was made by Roberto Rive sometime in the mid-19th century. It’s a lovely example of photography as a way of recording architectural history. Think about how the materials of the original theater – stone, brick, and plaster – were quarried, transported, and shaped by laborers, and built to stand the test of time, yet were ultimately no match for volcanic eruption. Now consider the photographic process: the labor of setting up the shot, the chemistry involved, and the printing of the final image. The photograph reduces this vast architectural space to a small, portable size, and makes it reproducible. In a way, Rive's photograph continues the work of preservation, but it also transforms the theater into a commodity, an object to be consumed by tourists and art lovers. It’s an interesting parallel: the work of the ancient stonemasons and builders, and that of the 19th-century photographer.