Het strand bij Babbicombe met strandtentjes en roeiboten. c. 1901

This photo of Babbicombe Beach with its tents and boats, probably taken with a glass plate camera, captures a moment in time with incredible detail. I imagine Frits Freerks Fontein Fz. setting up his equipment on the sand, carefully framing the scene. The light must have been tricky, balancing the dark cliffs with the bright expanse of the beach. You know, working with a camera like this back then was a real physical process – the darkroom work, the developing, it was all part of the art. The composition is amazing, drawing your eye from the tents in the foreground to the boats, the figures, and then up to that huge cliff dominating the background. The beach huts and upturned boats almost look like sculptures. It feels like a conversation between man-made structures and the natural landscape, a theme you see in paintings by other artists. It’s a dance between what we build and what already exists. It's interesting to see how artists are always engaging with each other, even across different mediums and eras. There’s always this back-and-forth, influencing and inspiring each other to see the world in new ways.