Drie mannen in Volendamse klederdracht zittend op een kade c. 1900 - 1910

This is a photograph of three men in traditional Volendam clothing sitting on a quayside, probably made using a gelatin silver process. What strikes me is the way the greys and blacks meld together, creating a sense of depth and atmosphere, like a fog rolling in. It's almost as if the picture is not just showing us something, but evoking a feeling, a mood. Look at the way the sails are furled, and the way the rigging creates such a dense web of lines. Then there are the men themselves, their dark silhouettes almost blending into one mass. The eye is drawn to the contrasts between the light in the sky and in the water with the dark forms of the men and boats. This tonal range is something you see in the work of someone like Gerhard Richter, who also played with the ways that photography can distort and abstract reality. In the end, this image invites us to lose ourselves in its textures and tones, and to find our own meanings in the ambiguity of its forms.