Klein Hoefblad c. 1900 - 1930

This is a photograph by Richard Tepe, called Klein Hoefblad. The image is made of soft greys and browns, capturing a dense field of what looks like small, tightly curled plants or flowers. You can almost feel the damp earth and the stillness of the air on the heath. I wonder what Tepe was thinking as he framed this shot, kneeling down low, maybe, to get this close-up perspective. He's transforming something so ordinary into something almost otherworldly. It reminds me a bit of some of the early landscape photography, trying to capture the sublime in the everyday. Looking at the image, I imagine him returning to the location over and over, trying to get the light just right. He invites us to pause and to really see the beauty in the mundane, that art is about noticing and about finding poetry in unexpected places.