Bestek nr. 217, dienst 1903, 1905 Possibly 1904 - 1924

Arnaud Pistoor & Zoon made this photograph around 1905. It's a documentary image, but it's also weirdly beautiful. It's monochrome, so the mark making is all about tone. It has the feel of old photographs, where the contrast seems so extreme, almost burned in. Look how the light catches the tops of the reeds in the foreground. The image is also sepia toned with age, giving it an unearthly quality, but this is the thing that makes the photo so interesting. The scene feels like it is being uncovered, revealed to us by the archaeologists eye. I'm reminded of Frederick Sommer's collages, who, like Pistoor, seemed to find beauty in mundane scenes. Both find ways to transform familiar images into something strange and uncanny, opening new ways of seeing. The image asks us to slow down, to observe, and to think about how we see the world.