Interieur van de Grote Kerk te Muiden 1910

This photograph shows the interior of the Grote Kerk in Muiden and was made by an anonymous photographer working for Monumentenzorg. The image is awash in shades of gray, which gives the space a somewhat ghostly feeling, as if we’re looking at a memory. The architecture is massive, those columns are powerful, but what catches my eye is the light. It’s soft, diffused, creating subtle gradations of tone. I’m wondering if the photographer was thinking about the relationship between light and form, and how light can reveal the essence of a space. The chairs arranged in neat rows, are so small and frail in comparison. It reminds me a bit of the photographs of Eugène Atget. Both Atget and this anonymous photographer are interested in capturing the essence of a place, the feeling of a space, before it changes or disappears. And that, for me, is the beauty of art – its ability to capture a moment in time and preserve it for eternity, open to endless interpretation.