Gedeelte van de kasteelruïne te Batenburg 1906

This photo of the castle ruin at Batenburg, was made by an anonymous photographer, and what gets me is how the image, almost monochromatic, feels totally soft. It’s like it’s been aged in a riverbed. The way the photographer frames the ruin reflected in the water, it's like they're searching for a way to make the ruin whole again, by showing its reflection as its completion. There's a sense of trying to grasp something that's gone. The texture of the stonework is really highlighted against the smooth water, and your eye sort of dances between decay and stillness, or what feels like it. It reminds me of some of Gerhard Richter's paintings; the way he blurs forms and edges. It's as if this photograph is showing us that art – like memory – is an echo, always changing, never quite fixed.