Gezicht op het Sint-Pietersplein te Vaticaanstad, met op de voorgrond de Vaticaanse Obelisk before 1907

This black and white photograph captures the grandeur of the Vatican City, with the iconic St. Peter's Square spread out before us. Imagine the photographer, wrestling with the cumbersome equipment of the time, trying to capture the vastness of the space. I wonder what they were thinking as they framed this shot, aiming to convey the power of the church and the scale of human ambition embodied in these buildings? The starkness of the black and white palette gives the image a timeless quality. The surface is smooth, and the details are sharp, almost clinical. Look at the way the light falls on the obelisk. You can almost feel the weight of history pressing down. The photographer's perspective, looking down on the square, reminds me that art-making is about framing the world and inviting others to see it from a particular vantage point. It is like any other painter trying to capture the essence of the place, and to give meaning to the world.