Landschap before 1901

This small photograph by Rudolf Eickemeyer captures a landscape, printed in a book sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. Looking at this grainy image I imagine Eickemeyer out in the landscape, lugging around bulky photographic equipment. It must have been quite a task! He probably waited for hours to catch the light just right. I see these tiny, blurry wildflowers and think of him carefully focusing his lens, trying to capture their delicate beauty. I wonder what Eickemeyer was thinking about as he captured this scene. Was he trying to document a disappearing landscape or capture a fleeting moment of beauty? Maybe he, like many artists, was trying to find some kind of harmony and equilibrium in the world? He was part of a longer conversation between artists and photographers. Each one building on the ideas of those who came before. Eickemeyer's picture inspires me to pick up my own camera and explore the world with fresh eyes, looking for those quiet moments of beauty that often go unnoticed.