Portret van Louis Blériot op zijn vliegtuig before 1917

Curator: Here we have a portrait, probably predating 1917, by Fr. Rose, titled "Portret van Louis Blériot op zijn vliegtuig", or "Portrait of Louis Blériot in his Airplane" to those of us who didn't have time for Duolingo today. Editor: It strikes me as a peculiar moment, somehow serene. Blériot, perched on what looks like a flimsy construct of wood and wire, gazes back with a calm that belies the pioneering spirit one imagines must have been necessary for early flight. Curator: What's compelling to me is that the image emphasizes, precisely, the construct, that sense of precariousness. We see the airplane's skeletal structure around him—the literal framework of his daring. Rose directs our attention not to Blériot’s persona as an aviator but as an industrial subject, seated within his labor, framed by his labor. Editor: True, it's all about the nuts and bolts, literally. But the overall mood is almost...pastoral, wouldn't you say? He's framed against that pale, undefined sky. The soft light almost erases any sense of imminent danger, imbuing this moment of technological achievement with a very human stillness. Curator: Stillness, maybe. It's the quiet before the mechanical roar. But I'm more interested in the social dynamics implicit within early aviation's claim of breaking social barriers. Look at how photography enters the industrial scene. What had been experienced could be packaged as images of success in mass quantities. How does this access change our social expectations surrounding leisure, travel, and communication? Editor: You always bring it back to production, don't you? Still, I can’t shake this feeling that he’s more romantic figure than cog in a machine. A touch melancholic, almost wistful. Perhaps contemplating not just flight but the idea of transcendence. Or just hoping for a smooth landing. Curator: That kind of "romance" can be misleading, if divorced from material reality. However, as the image becomes popular via distribution channels of visual media and the modern postal system—both technologies enabling modern communications-- it opens up unique possibilities within the culture it reaches. Editor: Hmm. Well, whatever he’s thinking, it certainly makes you consider the sheer audacity—and vulnerability—of these early pilots. Thanks to Fr. Rose for capturing that, with a rather beautiful realism. Curator: Indeed. Blériot—a complex individual framed, here, at the exciting juncture of technology, labour and its cultural accessibility.