Lord Roberts (Frederick Sleigh Roberts) (3e van links) en Britse soldaten te paard gaan Kroonstad binnen 1901

This image, made by an anonymous artist, shows Lord Roberts and British soldiers entering Kroonstad, with horses, and a sepia palette. It’s like the whole scene has been dipped in tea! What gets me is the flatness, even though you can see the long road ahead. It’s almost like the artist has compressed all that perspective. The grainy texture makes me think about process, all those tiny, almost invisible touches, that build up the image. Look at the way the horses and soldiers in the foreground merge into the background, like one big army centipede. It’s this weird mix of detail and abstraction that I find really compelling. The way they're all trooping into the distance puts me in mind of Muybridge's motion studies, and the way he broke down movement into separate actions. It’s not just about showing something, but about how seeing can be a kind of thinking.