Achtergevel van Nieuwstraat 10 te Dordrecht 1911

This photograph was taken by an anonymous artist from Monumentenzorg, sometime around 1911. The sepia tones give it a slightly ghostly quality. It reminds me of some of Atget’s old photographs of Paris. I imagine the photographer standing in front of this building. Did they have to wait for the right light? What might have been going through their head as they set up the shot? They must have been thinking about the relationship between buildings and history, about how these brick walls bear witness to a whole host of human dramas. There’s the grid like structure of the brick work against the rectangle of each window, how different geometric forms can create an atmosphere of quiet contemplation. Painters are in an ongoing conversation with one another through their materials and techniques, across time and space. We pick up threads from the past and weave them into our own work, always experimenting, always learning.