Interieur van de Hervormde Kerk te Hellendoorn 1909

This is a black and white photograph of the interior of the Hervormde Kerk in Hellendoorn. When I look at it, I think about all the thinking the photographer did, just like in painting – what to crop, how to deal with the light. It’s an old church with rows of benches, quite empty, except for a few figures in the distance. The light is coming in from the side, maybe through some big windows. It's softened, diffused, and there are these really gorgeous blurry, shiny reflections on the floor. It feels like the light has just been slathered across the floor, like warm honey. What I find interesting is the way that light kind of flattens the space out. You know, it's like the photographer was thinking about how the light is playing across the architecture. Maybe they were also thinking about how the architecture and the light speak about the culture, the beliefs, the values that shape how people live. It makes me think about art as a space for thinking about values, a place to really contemplate what matters to people, and how they behave.