Familie Kessler in avondkleding op het bordes van landhuis Pauw 1913

Geldolph Adriaan Kessler made this photograph of the Kessler family in evening dress on the steps of Landhuis Pauw. The image is composed of subtle gradations of grey, and it's those tonal shifts that carry the weight of the image, just like in a black and white Gerhard Richter painting. Look at how the light falls on the architecture, there’s a beautiful softness, especially in the way the tones blend on the steps themselves. In contrast, the sharp, dark, lines of the evening wear provide a kind of counterpoint. The composition is formal, but within that there's a real sense of something being caught on the fly. I love the way the plants at the edge of the frame offer a kind of soft, unfocussed, visual rhyme with the human figures in the center. The photo reminds me a little of the compositional style of someone like August Sander; the photo feels like it's part of a series, an ongoing meditation on family and place. Ultimately, though, there is something beautifully unknowable about this image, and it’s that ambiguity that draws me back to it.