Kapel van de kasteelruïne te Valkenburg

This sepia photograph depicts a ruin chapel within a castle, though the details of its making are lost to time. I love the anonymous quality to the work. It’s such a gentle wash of browns, almost like a memory fading into the past. The surface has this beautiful, soft texture, and the light catches the edges of the stones, which looks like a crumbling, yet resilient surface. In the middle, there is a dark shape that draws you in. Is it a person, or just a trick of the light? It makes you wonder about the stories held in these stones. It reminds me a bit of some of the landscapes made by Gustave Courbet, who also found ways to make the old and broken feel present. Art doesn’t have to be shiny and new, sometimes the best stories come from what's left behind.