Man met paard en wagen in Rusland 1903 - 1904

Joseph Cheetham made this photograph of a man with a horse and cart in Russia, but when? In this modest little image, the muted tones create a kind of sepia wash that pulls you right in. This gives it a dreamy, nostalgic feel, don't you think? It's like a memory fading at the edges. The surface has a slight sheen, and there's a soft blur, like a foggy day or the memory of one. Look at the wheels of the cart, how they seem to dissolve into the light, they remind me of the way Gerhard Richter blurs the focus of his paintings. Maybe it’s just a smudge from handling, but this lends a sense of time passing. "Ready for a drive," it says underneath. Where are they going? And, more importantly, when are they going? Maybe it's less about a specific destination, and more about the journey, you know?