Gedeelte van de stadsmuur van Harderwijk 1900 - 1920

This photograph of a section of the city wall of Harderwijk was made by an anonymous photographer, using a monochrome film to capture the subject. The tones in this image are quite beautiful, moving from near-black to a bright but subtle off-white. Look closely at the wall itself, the way the light falls across its surface gives it a three-dimensional quality and hints at the texture of the bricks, or the ways the mortar sits between them. The photograph doesn’t just show us what’s there, but also the subtle effects of light and shade. It's all about how the light caresses the wall. The image's composition reminds me a little bit of Ed Ruscha's photographs of buildings, in that it approaches its subject with a similar level of documentary seriousness and attention to detail. But ultimately this image, like all photographs, opens itself up to multiple readings and invites us to project our own feelings and thoughts onto the scene.