Het melken van een koe in het veld bij Noordwijk 1904

Curator: Here we have Geldolph Adriaan Kessler's 1904 gelatin silver print, “Het melken van een koe in het veld bij Noordwijk,” now held at the Rijksmuseum. It roughly translates to "Milking a Cow in a Field near Noordwijk." Editor: It’s incredibly still. I feel the heavy, damp air pressing down—like everything is just… existing. A muted pastoral scene caught in sepia tones, almost melancholic. Curator: These early photographic prints provided an easily reproducible, affordable means to depict Dutch life. Note how Kessler has positioned the farmhands at work among the cattle—placing them firmly within the natural environment. Genre paintings, as these were commonly called, allowed for widespread consumption of scenes of daily life, reinforcing certain ideals and understandings of rural labour at the turn of the century. Editor: The double composition makes me feel like I'm looking through a stereoscope, almost three-dimensional, pulling me right into the muddy field. The small cluster of trees on the horizon is like a smudge—an anchor for the gaze. It has this lovely sense of grounded simplicity, almost Zen-like. Are the muted tones stylistic? Curator: Exactly. The muted quality has less to do with style and more to do with the limitations of early gelatin silver printing. However, in this image, that adds a quiet, somber tonality. Realism was a defining characteristic, aspiring to objectivity while simultaneously aestheticizing its subjects and therefore reinforcing notions of class. Editor: It also emphasizes the endless repetition inherent in agricultural life; it's captured at the golden hour of production where tradition and innovation converge through Kessler’s lens. Curator: Precisely. Through the politics of photography, we encounter cultural ideas and labor. This photograph demonstrates the impact imagery can have on a public understanding of everyday labour and rural life. Editor: Looking at this reminds me how easy it is to idealize "the good old days" through nostalgic pictures. We've really pulled back the veil a bit today.