Port Scene in Trieste, 1898

The picture detail shows a ship with a funnel blowing thick smoke. The subject is moved far into the background. The foreground is dominated by the rippling water and the quay that runs to the rear as a gentle diagonal. With their varying shades of gray and structures, water, steam, and clouds convey an atmospheric mood, as a watercolor might. The large-sized photograph was enlarged through gum printing by Hugo Henneberg (1863–1918), a trained natural scientist and amateur photographer. This special process produced formats that made the images of the new technical medium juxtaposable with painting, which was more than welcome, given that photography had originally been recognized as an exclusively technical accomplishment. The claim of it being an art was established by the so-called pictorialists, one of whom was Henneberg.

AK, 2021