Jérusalem. Porte de Hebron et de Jaffa. (Bab-el-Khalil) 1860

Editor: So this albumen print from 1860 by Louis de Clercq, titled "Jérusalem. Porte de Hebron et de Jaffa," shows an imposing gate. It feels very solid, permanent somehow, even timeless. What stories do you think this image tells? Curator: Well, that gate, the Jaffa Gate, speaks volumes across time. Consider the arch itself: universally, it symbolizes transition, a passage from one state to another. In Jerusalem, a city laden with spiritual significance, this transition is not just physical, but also metaphorical, perhaps even spiritual. Editor: That’s fascinating. It’s more than just a doorway then. Curator: Exactly. What does the fact that it’s photographed, reproduced mechanically, suggest about how Europeans saw Jerusalem in 1860? Editor: I guess they wanted to possess it, in a way, by documenting it? This idea of the "Orient" that was so popular… Curator: Precisely. This image isn't just about stone and structure, but about the gaze, about cultural memory and longing. The play of light and shadow, the starkness of the scene…doesn't it evoke a sense of the monumental, but also a certain emptiness, perhaps a lost connection? Editor: I see what you mean. It makes me think about how photography itself changes our relationship to places. By representing it, the photo both captures and changes the essence of Jerusalem, setting its image in the cultural memory. Curator: Indeed. The photograph carries forward these echoes; and it encourages us to reflect on how we attach meaning to what we see. Editor: I’ll never look at a photograph the same way again.