Twee mannen en een vrouw poserend in een houten uitkijktoren 1906

This photograph of three people posing in a wooden tower was taken by Folkert Idzes de Jong. It's a sepia print, a process that gives it a warm, antique feel, like a memory fading at the edges. Look at the way the light filters through the trees, creating a web of shadows around the tower. The figures are stiffly posed, but there's a kind of awkward charm to it, like a snapshot of a bygone era. The tower itself, with its rough-hewn beams and precarious-looking steps, is the real subject here. There's a similar atmosphere in some of August Sander's portraits of people in Weimar Germany. Both artists capture a sense of their time, with all its hopes, anxieties, and contradictions. It reminds us that art is never just about what we see, but how we see it. It is like catching a feeling, a moment in time, and holding onto it.