Het gezelschap gaat aan boord per loopplank c. 1903 - 1908

This photograph, titled "Het gezelschap gaat aan boord per loopplank" was taken by Geldolph Adriaan Kessler. It captures a moment, like a quick sketch with light and shadow. Look how the tones shift. The grainy texture almost feels like you could reach out and touch the damp wood of the dock, or feel the spray of the water. There's a starkness, a kind of everyday poetry in the way the light catches the edges of the boat and the figures embarking. It makes me think about how photography, at its best, isn't just about capturing reality, but about shaping it, finding the drama in the mundane. The photo isn't so different from the work of someone like Eugène Atget. Both found beauty in the unadorned, but where Atget sought to document a disappearing world, Kessler seems to be after something more elusive, a fleeting moment of connection between people and their environment. It's a reminder that art is often about seeing what's already there, but seeing it in a new way.