Zwarte roodstaart op een paaltje 1915 - 1930

This photograph was taken by Richard Tepe, we don't know exactly when, and it's of a black redstart on a post. It's interesting to think about what Tepe was doing in his photography. Was he interested in form, in the way the lines of the bird echo those of the post? Or was he just into birds? I guess what I mean is, what's the gesture here? The bird has something in its mouth. A worm? Some tasty treat. So this isn’t some idealized vision of nature. Photography can be so good at capturing the real, like the feeling that this is a moment frozen in time. The dark, blurry background makes the bird and post really pop. They’re like actors on a stage. It reminds me of those quiet, everyday scenes that painters like Morandi were so good at capturing. It seems to me all artists are in an ongoing conversation, each inspiring the next.