Kamer in landhuis De Wildbaan, Driebergen 1903 - 1907

Henry Pauw van Wieldrecht made this photograph of a room in a Dutch country house, sometime at the turn of the last century. It's so interesting to me, the tonal range is limited, it feels almost like a drawing. What I like about this image is that it reminds me of process. Look at the surface, everything feels so considered. The eye travels across the image searching through the different surfaces and details. There’s a table in the foreground, maybe that’s where the photos and letters piled above the mantelpiece come from. In the corner, a white coat hangs on a hook. Whose coat is that? A visitor, a family member, the artist? There are so many unanswered questions. I like to think about what it would be like to photograph a room. Think of someone like Gerhard Richter, and the way his paintings feel like photographs and his photographs feel like paintings. It is all connected.