Luxor 1936

This is a series of black and white photographs of Luxor, pasted onto a page of a photo album by an anonymous artist. There’s something about seeing these ancient forms captured through such an early photographic process. It's like the starkness of the photos strips away the color and pomp, leaving us with the bare bones of history. The grainy texture, that lack of midtones, is kind of beautiful. It reminds me of charcoal drawings. I'm drawn to the photograph on the right, with the seated figure of Ramses and the smaller human figure sitting in front. There's something really moving about it, this contrast of scale and time. In the details, the ways the tones shift almost imperceptibly, is where the emotional resonance lies. It’s like stepping into a conversation that’s been going on for centuries. Like the conversation between Eugène Atget and Bernd and Hilla Becher, a dialogue on the essence of form. I always find the ambiguity in art more compelling than answers.