Schelpengalerij bij Kasteel Rosendael Possibly 1944 - 1946

Here's an anonymous photograph titled 'Schelpengalerij bij Kasteel Rosendael', whose creation date is unknown. Imagine the act of photographing these shell galleries, walking around the Dutch garden, framing a shot, and then the click and whirr of the camera—a beautiful example of amateur photography. I sympathize with this anonymous photographer and what it might have been like to create this scene. What might they have been thinking when they shot it? Did they have a sense of the place? A desire to remember the day? Or were they just following the crowd? The photographer's relationship with the shells and the garden and the people who lived there. It is as unique as the painting is to the painter. There's an echo of that in some of the great paintings, those of Cy Twombly or Joan Mitchell, where the artist’s hand and body are almost palpable. Like painting, photography is a form of expression which embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meanings.