Gezicht op de Grajische Alpen before 1905

This is a view of the Grajische Alpen by V. Sella, pasted into an old album, maybe as a travel memento. It’s just a little black and white photo, kind of unassuming at first, but then you notice the mountains are pointing sideways! I love the simplicity of the palette: shades of gray, soft clouds, and the way it captures the hugeness of the landscape in something so small. Look closely at the textures. You can almost feel the chill of the air and the weight of the mountains. The album it is attached to has so many foxing spots, these spots become part of the image. Thinking about this in the context of artists like Gerhard Richter, who also used photography as a point of departure for his paintings, you realize art’s an ongoing conversation, right? It’s not about having the right answer, but about the questions we ask.