Portret van Willem Jacob van den Berg met een hond in Shewasaulu, Zuid-Afrika 1967

Willem Jacob van den Berg made this photograph, Portret van Willem Jacob van den Berg met een hond in Shewasaulu, Zuid-Afrika, sometime around 1967. It’s like looking into a memory. The greens and browns are all soft and muted. The fence is a jumble of diagonals, leading your eye around the image and making you feel a little unsteady. The way the light falls on the grass and the worn timber is just beautiful. I imagine the air smells of earth and grass. Look at the way the dog sits at the man’s feet, a faithful companion, and then there's the man himself, relaxed and at ease, like a part of the landscape. It reminds me a little of Fairfield Porter’s paintings of his family and friends in Maine – casual, intimate, and full of light. It feels like you’re looking at a moment of stillness, caught in time. It could be a painting.