Natuuropnamen 1948 - 1949

This set of photographs, 'Natuurropnamen' or 'Nature Photos', is an anonymous collection, pasted into the album with care. I'm struck by the textural contrast between the smooth brown pages and the crisp, jagged edges of the photographs. The landscapes themselves have a strange feeling, as if they are at once inviting and forbidding, with their tonal range from dark shadows to bright highlights. It makes me wonder what it means to make a picture of a landscape: is it a way to capture the beauty of nature, or is it a way to take possession of it? There’s something about the way the photos are arranged that reminds me of collages: little windows onto different views and different ways of seeing the world. It makes me think of Gerhard Richter's 'Atlas', an ongoing project of photographs which forms a kind of anti-monument, both monumental and deeply personal. The arrangement of these photographs gives them a new meaning, transforming them into something more than just a collection of images: a space for imagination, where the boundaries between seeing and thinking become blurred.