Uitzicht vanaf een berg bij Louis Trichardt, Zuid-Afrika 1967

Willem Jacob van den Berg made these three, small landscape photographs in South Africa. They're stuck in what looks like a photo album, a format that inherently suggests a personal narrative. I am struck by the pale greens and muted blues, and how they give the whole page a gentle, almost faded quality. Look at the way the light seems to diffuse across each image, softening the edges and creating a hazy atmosphere. It's like he's capturing not just the landscape, but also a feeling, a memory. Each little square is like a window, and as a painter myself I can appreciate the way that photographs capture a fleeting moment in time. I’m also curious what Van den Berg, who was an active anti-apartheid activist would have thought of David Hockney’s photo collages. There’s something deeply evocative about these little slices of landscape.