Close No. 139 Saltmarket 1868

Thomas Annan captured this melancholic urban scene with a photographic print. Light and shadow interplay, giving a haunting quality to the Saltmarket "close." The close, a narrow passage, appears in urban centers across Europe, a motif seen in the labyrinthine streets of medieval towns and later, in the overcrowded quarters of industrial cities. Such passages became potent symbols of the divide between public appearance and private existence, the known and the concealed. Think of Eugène Atget’s photographs of Parisian alleyways or Piranesi’s dark, complex etchings of prisons. These echoes suggest how the close became a stage for social and psychological dramas, embodying both the potential for connection and the threat of isolation. Here, the dark mouth of the close invites the viewer to face the unease and uncertainty of the urban landscape.