Toren van het stadhuis van Kampen 1904

This is a photograph of the tower of the town hall of Kampen, made by an anonymous artist. I’m interested in the way the light falls softly over the tower, as if filtered through mist or falling snow. It's an image caught in a moment of time but it also has this incredible sense of being an object that is fixed, solid and permanent. The colour is so muted, almost entirely sepia. And the texture of the tower seems so smooth, cool and still. Look closely and you can just make out the bricks and how they fit together. The tiles of the roof have a really nice texture. The eye is drawn upwards towards the spire and the little crown right at the top, which suggests a regal kind of architecture. Thinking about another artist who is interested in the built environment, I am reminded of the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher, who took photographs of industrial buildings as a way of documenting them and considering them as sculpture. Of course, this building has a more decorative sensibility. The photograph feels like an attempt to capture something that is both functional and beautiful.