Parochiaal kruis afkomstig uit Vernassal before 1857

Curator: Well, this is quite the striking piece. Before us, we have a photograph of a "Parochial Cross from Vernassal," as the title suggests, captured sometime before 1857, and attributed to Hippolyte Malègue. It’s a gelatin silver print showing... what are your initial thoughts? Editor: Bleak, if I'm honest. Stark and rather austere. The tonality sucks the joy out of the cross; it becomes this monument of somber dedication. A fascinating piece from a formal perspective though: look how the photograph captures this object. It highlights all the medieval influences with great sharpness! Curator: Indeed, the photograph certainly gives this religious icon a strong, somewhat haunting presence. There’s something about seeing this object captured in an older photographic medium— a kind of double-layered past if you will. We’re presented with an object already laden with historical weight and ritual meaning, then filtered through the emerging lens of photography itself! What does that do to it? Editor: It re-emphasizes its inherent formality. We lose the immediacy of direct sensory engagement and gain an aestheticized rendering in pure geometric shapes, as if the thing only ever existed as pure Idea. Notice the cross form, bisected and quartered at once! That’s so good! Also the detail in the ornamentation— do you think there are possibly subtle visual indicators relating to the materials here? Some are shinier or brighter than others, leading me to believe there are a bunch of things going on material-wise! Curator: I can see what you're getting at. It could imply several kinds of craftsmanship—perhaps layers of creation that could involve craft guilds, family histories, trade routes… And those stark blacks against the white create such dramatic chiaroscuro. This piece could function as an image that stands in for cultural memory. What do you make of that claim? Editor: As long as you're talking about Western Civilization as a collective historical identity. After all, the photograph isn't only an image of something; it stands for itself too, both an aesthetic construction *and* document. As such, its emotional affect will resonate very differently depending on who's seeing. I see what's at play formally with this image's capture; what one may perceive through its "memory" will drastically differ. Curator: Exactly. Well, whatever our own emotional response might be, this Parochial Cross, forever suspended in silver gelatin, serves as potent visual witness to an era and faith very distant from us, isn't it? Editor: A formal triumph of technique, I say. One that manages to hold together the material presence and its abstracted Idea with superb photographic form.