Pondok in het bos 1900 - 1922

Robert Julius Boers made this stereo card photograph called 'Pondok in het bos', or 'Pondok in the woods' at an unknown date. The entire image is bathed in a warm sepia tone, a colour that evokes nostalgia and a sense of stepping back in time. There’s something about the texture here that’s really striking. The way the light filters through the trees, creating a dappled effect, feels almost painterly. Look at the way the trees form a screen, obscuring and revealing the hut in equal measure. There are so many different tones here, and yet each one blends seamlessly into the next. Boers coaxes depth and volume from a single hue. Boers reminds me a bit of Camille Corot, with their shared love of light and atmosphere. Like Corot, Boers seems less interested in capturing a precise likeness than in evoking a mood, a feeling, a fleeting moment in time. With both artists, you feel you're not just looking *at* a landscape, you're stepping *into* it.