Roofs in Mala Strana 1924

Jan Lauschmann took this photograph called “Roofs in Mala Strana,” and it’s a brown and tan world, like an old postcard that’s been sitting in the sun. I imagine Lauschmann up high, maybe in an attic window or on a hill, his camera like an eye trying to capture the jumble of roofs. They are all huddled together like they’re telling secrets. The light seems soft, like it's filtered through a cloud or maybe a memory. I get a sense of Lauschmann observing, finding a kind of beauty in the everyday scene. The tiles on the roofs are repetitive, yet each building has its own little quirks. See how the light catches the edge of one roof, while another is dark and mysterious? It reminds me that even in a city, there’s a kind of wildness, an unplanned beauty that just emerges. Lauschmann’s photograph is a way of seeing, a way of feeling the city that continues to resonate with painters and photographers alike.