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

This is a photograph, or rather, two photographs, of Willem van den Berg’s house in Shewasaulu, South Africa, most likely taken by van den Berg himself. They’re glued into an album, presumably by the artist, and this gives the work a diaristic feeling. The photographs are interesting because of their casualness: they’re not staged or posed. The colours are faded, like memory itself, giving the scene a dreamy quality. I am drawn to the way the artist frames the house from a distance, with the trees and bushes taking up much of the shot. The house, a simple, low building, is almost hidden, as if the artist is more interested in the surrounding landscape. I love the flatness of the composition, the way the sky meets the horizon in a hazy, undefined line. This reminds me of the work of the Bechers, who also photographed buildings in a straightforward, documentary style. But while the Bechers were interested in the objective qualities of their subjects, van den Berg seems more interested in the subjective experience of place. These photographs aren’t about architecture; they’re about home, memory, and the act of looking itself.