Woonhuis van Willem van den Berg in Shewasaulu, Zuid-Afrika 1969

This photograph shows Willem van den Berg's house in Shewasaulu, South Africa, and it was probably taken with a simple camera, maybe in the late 60s. I'm thinking about Willem, squinting in the sun, trying to get the house, the trees, and the distant hills all in the frame. The light is so bright, and it flattens everything a little, like a memory fading over time. There's a stillness in the air, a quiet that makes me wonder about the stories held within those walls. It makes me think about other artists who painted their homes like Fairfield Porter who had this way of capturing the everyday. There's a humbleness to both their work that’s incredibly moving because they both suggest a certain way of seeing the world, a way of finding beauty in the ordinary. It’s the kind of conversation that artists have across time, inspiring each other to look closer, to see more.