Twee mannen en een vrouw poserend in een houten uitkijktoren 1906

Folkert Idzes de Jong captured two men and a woman posing in a wooden lookout tower sometime around the turn of the 20th century. I can only imagine what it might have been like to lug all that equipment out into the woods and then ask your friends to climb up this rickety tower! I’m already feeling a bit of vertigo just looking at it. The tones are warm and nostalgic, the sepia effect giving it an antique feel. Even though the tower is made of wood, I'm struck by the formal elements in this picture. I am reminded of geometric abstraction: the intersecting lines of the tower contrasting with the softness of the surrounding trees. In a way, every photograph is a collaboration between the photographer and the subject. What were these people thinking as they posed for this picture? Did they understand that, over a century later, we’d still be looking at them?