Fotoreproductie van een foto door Hans Watzek, voorstellend een stadsgezicht aan het water before 1907

This photogravure by Hans Watzek captures a city scene by the water, rendered in soft, tonal shades of gray. It's like a memory, an impression left on paper. What strikes me is how the details dissolve into hazy forms. The buildings and trees emerge from the reflective surface of the water, their edges blurred. Look closely, and you'll notice how the light seems to caress the surfaces, softening the rigid architecture. The reflections aren't exact, they ripple and distort, creating an ethereal, dreamlike quality. It’s less about documenting reality and more about evoking a mood. Watzek was part of the Austrian Photo-Secession, who believed that photography should be recognized as a fine art. Their work often aimed for painterly effects, blurring the lines between photography and other artistic mediums like painting and etching, not unlike the approach pioneered by Pictorialist photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz.