Man op een paardenslee in Rusland 1903 - 1904

This photograph shows a man on a horse-drawn sleigh in Russia, captured by Joseph Cheetham. I'm struck by how the image feels both immediate and distant, like a memory fading at the edges. The composition, with its muted tones and stark contrasts, reminds me of early photographic processes—the way light and shadow play across the snow and the wooden structures. There's a stillness in the scene, yet I can almost hear the crunch of the snow and the horse’s breath. The texture of the photograph itself—the slight imperfections and graininess—adds to the sense of a bygone era. Looking at the horse, its form solid against the landscape, I think about the weight it carries, both literal and symbolic. It's a moment frozen in time, but it speaks to an ongoing conversation about history, memory, and our relationship to the past, not unlike Gerhard Richter's blurred photographs that evoke a sense of collective memory. It reminds us that art is not about answers but about exploring the questions.