Spoor en een spoorbrug over een rivier in de Anaikloof c. 1891 - 1912

Christiaan Benjamin Nieuwenhuis made this photograph, "Spoor en een spoorbrug over een rivier in de Anaikloof", and I wonder how long he spent setting up the shot. Look at how the track leads the eye, a kind of swooping 'S' shape, right? I love that double bridge—so elegant. It reminds me a little bit of the way Guston would indicate train tracks in his paintings. And those buildings in the foreground—they’re so simple, yet they have such character. I can feel Nieuwenhuis trying to find a way to frame the landscape, and I bet he was thinking about how to show the relationship between nature and industry. You know, it's that tension between the man-made and the organic. I can imagine him really thinking about composition, trying to balance the light and shadow, and trying to get all the details just right. I think it's the kind of thing that makes you appreciate the work and the artistry of it all. I feel like artists are always talking to each other, even across time. It's a constant exchange of ideas, an echo through history.