Man met paard en wagen in Rusland 1903 - 1904

This snapshot by Joseph Cheetham captures a man with a horse and wagon in Russia using a limited palette of sepias. It’s an everyday scene, yet the act of photographing gives it a different weight. The subdued color scheme and the stark lighting flattens the scene. I imagine Cheetham squinting through the camera lens, composing the shot, considering how the light plays on the horse's back. Was it tough to make art back then? What kind of equipment did they have? Was it collaborative? There must have been so much waiting for the right conditions to materialize. I think about the horse, probably tired. And the driver is doing his job. It makes me wonder, what's the relationship between them? This photograph is a document, yes, but it is also totally open. It’s a quiet picture, but full of potential narratives. And who knows, maybe Cheetham was inspired by other painters, by the way they captured the light and shadow of a scene. Photography and painting are always in conversation.