Waterval met staande jongen 1903

Gustav Salzer made this photo of a boy standing in a waterfall sometime around the turn of the century, when photography was really coming into its own. The image is so atmospheric. Look how the tones blur into each other, soft and dreamy; this isn't just a record, but an *interpretation* of a scene. And the texture is amazing: the silky, almost gauzy water against the solid, dark rocks. I like the contrast between the rushing water and the stillness of the boy. He's posed so formally, but the scene around him is wild and untamed. It makes you wonder about control and freedom, about how we fit into the natural world. To me, Salzer’s picture really opens up a conversation about seeing and feeling, as much as representing. You might think of someone like Alfred Stieglitz, who was doing similarly experimental photography around the same time. Both were pushing the boundaries of what photography could be.