Mannen in een auto 1900 - 1922

Robert Julius Boers made this photograph of men in a car, location and date unknown, using an analogue camera and gelatin silver print technique. The image is a study in greyscale, of course, but it's more than that, it's about the physical quality of the photographic process. The textures captured are wonderful - from the smooth surfaces of the car's body to the rough textures of the road and trees. Look at the intricate details of the tires and the folding roof of the car. The photograph is duplicated side-by-side; it is a stereograph. Stereographs were an early technology designed to create the illusion of three-dimensionality. Early photography was often about these kinds of experiments with reality. The work of someone like Bernd and Hilla Becher comes to mind, with its typological, almost scientific approach to capturing images of industrial structures. But where the Becher’s aesthetic is clinical and precise, this feels more intimate and immediate, a historical artifact of a bygone era. Art is a conversation and an ongoing investigation, not a fixed conclusion.