Formatie Goemoek Oost van Oost. (October 1926.) 1926

This black and white photograph, Formatie Goemoek Oost van Oost, was taken in October 1926 by an anonymous artist, and it’s all about process. I mean, look at this, it’s a landscape, maybe, but the process of erosion is way more present than any picturesque view. Layers of sediment are laid bare, like a painter’s underpainting. It's almost geological abstraction. The texture is incredible – rough and granular, you can practically feel the grit. Those diagonal striations, cutting across the frame, create a real sense of movement, and the stark contrast between light and shadow gives it depth and volume. There’s this one small, dark vertical line, it seems man made, like a survey marker – it is the only thing that seems to say anything about humans, it is such a contrast to the immense timescale being captured by the image, and it shows the strange relationship between humans and photography. It feels a bit like something Robert Smithson might have been looking at, and I like the way that the lack of human presence gives it an uncanny quality. Ultimately, there's no single way to read it.