Winterlandschap in Vlaanderen before 1901

Edmond Sacré made this photograph, "Winterlandschap in Vlaanderen," probably sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. It's like, can you even imagine being out there in that cold, bundled up, trying to capture the stillness of a winter landscape? The way the bare trees reach up into the sky, it’s so simple, so direct. I wonder if Sacré was thinking about the earlier landscape painters, like maybe some of the Barbizon School guys, who were all about getting back to nature and capturing the mood of a place. Photography and painting are always in conversation, anyway. I mean, think about how painters like Gerhard Richter use photos as source material, blurring the lines between realism and abstraction. Sacré, in his own way, was doing something similar, trying to capture the essence of a fleeting moment with light and shadow. It's all about the gesture, really.