Maria Gonggrijp, zittend aan de waterkant 1912

This is an anonymous photograph, Maria Gonggrijp, zittend aan de waterkant. A gray-scale document, it explores the way light can be a tool, not just for revelation, but for obscuring. The composition strikes me with how the contrast has been flattened, to bring forward the textures and materiality of its subject matter. I am drawn to the reflection in the water. It's like a ghost of the overhanging flora, barely there, as the tonal range is so carefully compressed. Photography, like painting, can be a deeply physical process. The choices of lens, exposure time, and printing technique all contribute to the final object that we see. Even the decision of where to crop is critical. I wonder, was this picture taken by Maria, or perhaps by someone close to her? The piece reminds me of the work of Eugène Atget, another photographer who explored the poetics of the everyday. Like Atget, this anonymous photographer seems less interested in capturing a perfect image than in creating a mood, a feeling, a sense of place.