Zuidzijde van de Dorpskerk te Poortugaal 1902

This is a photograph of the Zuidzijde van de Dorpskerk te Poortugaal made by an anonymous artist. It’s got this overall sepia tone, like an old memory fading at the edges, but that makes it sort of universal, right? The way the light hits the church, it’s almost like the building is breathing, each stone seems to have its own little shadow. The photographer really captured the texture of the place. I’m drawn to where the roof meets the sky. It’s not a clean line; it’s jagged and rough, like the edge of a torn piece of paper. It makes me think about how buildings aren't static, they age, they crumble, they change. This anonymous photograph reminds me of Bernd and Hilla Becher, those German photographers who documented industrial structures, because it shares that love of cataloging the world. But with the Bechers, everything is so precise, here there’s more feeling in the grain. This church, like all art, becomes a space for reflection, not just on what we see, but on how we see.