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| Eugène Constant Monte Cavallo, Rome ca. 1848-52 albumen silver print from glass negative Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Eugène Constant Pantheon, Rome ca. 1848-52 albumen silver print from glass negative Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Eugène Constant Piazza del Popolo, Rome ca. 1848-52 albumen silver print from glass negative Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Eugène Constant S. Giovanni Laterano, Rome ca. 1848-52 albumen silver print from glass negative Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Philip Henry Delamotte Crystal Palace storeroom with artisans and plaster casts 1852 albumen silver print from glass negative Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Philip Henry Delamotte Crystal Palace upper gallery, as reconstructed at Sydenham 1854 gelatin silver print from glass negative Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Franck Canal St Martin, Paris 1860 albumen silver print from glass negative Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Definition of Blue
The rise of capitalism parallels the advance of romanticism
And the individual is dominant until the close of the nineteenth century.
In our own time, mass practices have sought to submerge the personality
By ignoring it, which has caused it instead to branch out in all directions
Far from the permanent tug that used to be its notion of "home."
These different impetuses are received from everywhere
And are as instantly snapped back, hitting through the cold atmosphere
In one steady, intense line.
There is no remedy for this "packaging" which has supplanted the old sensations.
Formerly there would have been architectural screens at the point where the action
became most difficult
As a path trails off into shrubbery – confusing, forgotten, yet continuing to exist.
But today there is no point in looking to imaginative new methods
Since all of them are in constant use. The most that can be said for them further
Is that erosion produces a kind of dust or exaggerated pumice
Which fills space and transforms it, becoming a medium
In which it is possible to recognize oneself.
Each new diversion adds its accurate touch to the ensemble, and so
A portrait, smooth as glass, is built up out of multiple corrections
And it has no relation to the space or time in which it was lived.
Only its existence is a part of all being, and is therefore, I suppose, to be prized
Beyond chasms of night that fight us
By being hidden and present.
And yet it results in a downward motion, or rather a floating one
In which the blue surroundings drift slowly up and past you
To realize themselves some day, while you, in this nether world that could not be better
Waken each morning to the exact value of what you did and said, which remains.
– John Ashbery, from The Double Dream of Spring (E.P. Dutton, 1970)
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| Franck Colonne Vendôme, Paris (pulled down by Communards) 1871 albumen silver print from glass negative Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Charles Soulier Grande Salle du Conseil d'Etat, Palais d'Orsay (burned by Communards) 1871 albumen silver print from glass negative Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Charles Soulier Maisons de la porte d'Auteuil 1871 albumen silver print from glass negative Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| William Harrison Forêt de Fontainebleau ca. 1870-80 carbon print from glass negative Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Ottomar Anschütz Horse 1884 albumen silver print (grid added by later owner, muralist Josep Maria Sert) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Baron Adolf de Meyer Blossoming Cherry Trees, Japan 1900 carbon print Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Eugène Atget Fontaine, Sceaux ca. 1921 gelatin silver print from glass negative Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |