Schietoefening te Vlaardingen 1935 - 1945

This small black and white photograph, *Schietoefening te Vlaardingen*, captures a shooting practice somewhere in the Netherlands, and, well, it makes me think about how art can be a kind of target practice, too. Imagine the photographer, unknown to us, out in this field—a landscape punctuated by the odd geometries of human intervention. What were they aiming for? Was it the perfect composition, a fleeting moment of symmetry amidst the rural disorder? The eye is drawn to those targets, centered and stark against their thatched backdrop. Making a painting, or taking a photo for that matter, is kind of like that, isn’t it? You aim, you focus, but what you hit isn’t always what you expect. It's about setting up these little dramas, these questions of intention and accident. Like the abstract expressionists, this photographer shows how it's not just about hitting the mark, but about the gesture itself, the act of seeing and framing. And even though the shooter might be anonymous, their practice speaks volumes.