Drie meisjes lopen over de Amsterdamse Singel 1913 - 1940

Bernard Eilers captured this image of three girls walking along the Singel in Amsterdam, using a camera and photographic paper. Look at how the light falls across the scene, it’s almost as if Eilers is using light to paint, to define the edges of the girls’ aprons, the cobbled ground, the bare branches of the trees. The textures are palpable, from the roughness of the tree trunk to the smoothness of the girls’ faces. It feels like you could reach out and touch it. Notice how the composition draws your eye into the distance, the arch of the bridge creates a frame for the buildings beyond. It's like a stage set, and the girls are the performers, each caught in their own little world as they walk along the Singel. Eilers's work reminds me of that of other photographers like Eugène Atget, who used the camera to document everyday life, capturing the poetry of the ordinary. This image invites us to slow down, to look more closely at the world around us, and to find beauty in the simplest of moments.