Drie vrouwen op een heuvel before 1901

This photograph, "Three Women on a Hill," was made by Paul Mühsam sometime in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, using a photographic process that allowed for a range of tones between light and dark. I imagine Mühsam, carefully setting up his camera, waiting for the light to be just right, and then, click, capturing this quiet moment. The photograph feels intimate, almost like a memory fading at the edges. The women are silhouetted against the sky, their figures blending into the landscape. It’s hard to tell exactly what they’re doing, but it doesn’t really matter. It’s more about the mood, the feeling of being in nature, of being connected to something larger than oneself. There’s a sense of melancholy that reminds me of other artists like Caspar David Friedrich. Mühsam is part of a larger conversation about how we see and experience the world. It’s not just about what’s in the picture, but how it makes you feel.