In the age of digitally generated pictures, analog methods of depicting and capturing objects, events, and impressions hold a powerful, sometimes nostalgic appeal. Thousands of glass negatives left behind by a photographer who ran one of the first commercial studios in a Swiss city constitute a fascinating legacy, offering insight into late nineteenth and early twentieth century society and its norms. With their raw, artisanal expressiveness and a materiality highlighted by traces of wear, the glass negatives unfold as a unique aesthetic combining realism, transience, and poetry.