Luieren aan het strand in Zandvoort 1900 - 1905

Knackstedt & Näther made this photo, Luieren aan het strand in Zandvoort, at an undetermined time, using photography. The sepia tones give it a feeling of time standing still, but also of time moving on. I think about the way the sepia flattens everything, almost like memory itself. Look at the way the light catches the sand. It’s granular, almost like paint thickly applied, a kind of textural counterpoint to the flat sky. You can almost feel the grains between your toes. Then your eye drifts up to the hooded beach chairs, each a little world. I fixate on the people seated within, figures cloaked in shadow, almost like a painting. There’s a formality to it, a posed stillness that’s so different from how we think about the beach now. Photography like this reminds me of paintings by someone like Edward Hopper, with their sense of isolation. It’s a world both familiar and strange, and that’s why it’s so interesting to look at.