Gezicht op de Piazzetta en Riva dei Schiavoni te Venetië, Italië 1857 - 1914

Curator: What a surprisingly desolate view of Venice. It almost feels…clinical. Editor: Yes, Giorgio Sommer's photograph, “Gezicht op de Piazzetta en Riva degli Schiavoni te Venetië, Italië," made sometime between 1857 and 1914 and rendered through the albumen print process, captures this iconic vista, but something feels amiss, doesn't it? We know these spaces buzz with activity, even then. Curator: Absolutely. It provokes thoughts on Venice as a site of intense economic and political power historically, now seen so empty. Sommer perhaps unwittingly underscores a loss of Venetian agency in this stark portrayal. The city, often romanticized, feels strangely abandoned. Editor: And the albumen printing process, which binds the image through egg whites and silver nitrate, contributes to this uncanny feeling. It’s all about the careful manipulation of materials to craft an aestheticized truth, to represent a specific ideal. The surface itself has a slightly slippery sheen, emphasizing that constructed quality. Curator: Which takes me to thinking of gendered power structures. Sommer, as a male photographer, frames Venice – often feminized – through his own lens, perpetuating or, maybe more accurately, commenting on its subjugated beauty in an era of shifting empires and patriarchal structures. The lack of human figures intensifies this dynamic – the buildings stand as monumental, almost masculine assertions against the emptiness. Editor: The architecture dominating the photograph speaks to its original economic function, the physical embodiment of material wealth generated through trade and exploitation, don't you think? You can almost trace the silver, the albumen back to the economies it fed and depended upon. Curator: That interplay is precisely what fascinates me—how photographic processes not only capture but become embedded in larger cultural narratives, whether intentional or otherwise. The composition highlights themes of loneliness, lost prestige, and also a silent scream from an occupied geography. Editor: For me, Sommer’s technique highlights the ways a single image can encapsulate complex and often contradictory socio-economic conditions through an act of selective framing. The city rendered absent while undeniably present. Curator: Ultimately, this piece challenges the viewer to move past simplistic visual delight and grapple with complex layers of historical and cultural contexts. Editor: And to consider photography’s material connection to the worlds it purports to represent.