Toren van de Hervormde Kerk te Sprang-Capelle after 1911

This photograph of the Reformed Church Tower in Sprang-Capelle captures a moment in time, a record of a building and its place in the landscape. What strikes me is the way the monochrome palette flattens the image. The gradations of tone create a sense of depth, but the absence of colour encourages us to focus on the forms themselves: the solid, geometric shapes of the tower, the textures of the brickwork, and the softer shapes of the trees in the background. I’m drawn to the top of the spire, where a tiny weather vane sits, almost lost against the sky. It’s a small detail, but it speaks to the human impulse to measure and understand our environment. Like the anonymous photographer, who carefully framed this shot, we are drawn to record and interpret the world around us. Photography, like all art, is an act of seeing and making sense of what we see. Think of Bernd and Hilla Becher! They also documented architecture in black and white. The conversation goes on.