Zuidzijde van de Grote Kerk te Vianen c. 1890 - 1920

This photograph of the Zuidzijde van de Grote Kerk te Vianen was made by someone at Monumentenzorg, and because we don’t know who that was, that frees us up to project onto the image whatever we want, right? The cool thing about old photos is that they have this monochrome effect, like a faded memory. It pushes your focus onto the forms. Look at the texture of the bricks, you can almost feel the granular surface. The photographer, or documentarian I guess, is playing with light and shadow here, giving a real sense of depth to the facade of the church and the buildings alongside it. I love the way that the light is hitting the side of the smaller building, giving it a glow, like a cartoon. It reminds me of some of Atget’s architectural studies, but with a Dutch sensibility. Whether the photographer wanted to make an interesting composition, or just document the building, they accidentally made art.