Buitenzijde van de Berkelpoort te Valkenburg 1890 - 1920

This photograph, "Buitenzijde van de Berkelpoort te Valkenburg," probably made with a sepia-toned process shows a kind of beautiful, muted world of creamy whites and browns. It is a document created by Monumentenzorg. The texture! Look at the rough-hewn stones of the Berkelpoort, how they seem to vibrate against the slicker, smoother surfaces of the architecture just beyond the arch. See the way the soft, almost blurry edges of the trees at the top play against the hard angles of the stones. It’s like the picture is showing us how things fall apart, how the man-made and the natural keep pushing against each other. And then there are the men posed in the foreground, waiting. Is it the beginning of the day or the end? Look at the wheelbarrow, how it seems to be almost falling apart, but it’s still doing the work of repair. Think of Bernd and Hilla Becher, of their photos of industrial structures, of the poetry of ruins and renewal. What does the image tell us about time? Is it possible to know?