Victorian paper photography at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Thanks to the Victorian Peeper I’ve been reading about the exhibition ‘Impressed by Light: British Photographs from Paper Negatives, 1840-1860′, which is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, from 25 September until 31 December 2007. The Peeper’s article, with photographs, is excellent and I’m not going to try to duplicate it here; I’ll just say that this looks to be a fascinating exhibition. Apparently it is not visiting Britain, but will be at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris next year, so perhaps I’ll get to see it there.
The New York Times review of the exhibition is well-written and informative, but includes this assertion:
The bulk of the photographs here feel remarkably sedate, almost anesthetized. This is partly because moving things couldn’t be recorded in early photographs. But in his catalog essay Roger Taylor argues something else: that the peace and harmony in British calotypes mask the deep anxiety of the Victorian age, in which the life expectancy at birth for professional men was about 45, and for laborers 22.
Good grief, I’m sure Professor Taylor doesn’t say anything quite so fatuous. If an image is full of violence and angst, it’s expressing the deep anxiety of the age. If it’s peaceful and harmonious, it’s masking the deep anxiety of the age. Your classic one-size-fits-all cultural/historical critique.
