Moulins de Montmartre c. 1842 - 1965

This is Hippolyte Bayard's 'Moulins de Montmartre', a photograph on paper made sometime in the 19th Century. I can imagine Bayard setting up his camera, trying to capture the windmills of Montmartre. It's interesting, isn't it, how early photography had this almost painterly quality? Look at the muted tones, the way the light dapples the scene. It reminds me of a wash drawing, almost like a faded memory. The texture, I imagine it's smooth, matte, unlike the glossy photos we're used to today. I wonder what Bayard was thinking? Was he trying to document a disappearing landscape? Or was he just drawn to the shapes of those windmills against the Parisian sky? I suppose artists are often drawn to architecture. Think of Charles Sheeler's photographs of factories, or the etchings of Giovanni Battista Piranesi... It’s all one big conversation, isn't it? Artists across time riffing off each other, trying to make sense of the world in their own way.