Gezicht op een portaal van het Palais des Ducs de Lorraine in Nancy before 1893

This print, depicting a portal of the Palais des Ducs de Lorraine in Nancy, speaks to a crucial moment in the history of photography. It was made using a camera obscura, a technology predating modern cameras, which projects an image onto a surface via a small hole. The process itself is fascinating: the image, lacking the sharpness of a lens-based photograph, is softly rendered. The print shows a building, but also how photographic technologies were being explored. The accompanying chart relates to exposure times under different conditions. The manual calculation required, indicates the experimental and technical knowledge that was part of early photography. Consider the labor involved: the patient setup, the careful timing, the manual development of the print. This image is evidence of the photographer’s work, as well as the evolving relationship between art, science, and the means of production. It reminds us that every image carries the traces of its making.