Moskee aan het plein Naghsh-e Jahan, Isfahan, Perzië c. 1925

This photograph of the Mosque in Naghsh-e Jahan Square, Isfahan, Persia was taken by A.G.A. van Eelde, though we don't know exactly when. I like to think about the process of making a photograph, the click and whirr of the camera, the careful composition. In this image, I can see people milling about in the square, maybe going about their daily lives, or maybe they knew they were being photographed and had a sense of occasion about it. I wonder what the photographer was thinking when they framed this shot? Did they have to wait for the right moment, for the light to be just so? The photograph has a timeless quality, it could have been taken yesterday. And like painting, photography is an ongoing conversation between artists across time. Each image builds on what came before, and inspires what comes next. There's ambiguity and uncertainty in the image, and room for multiple interpretations.