In the Central Park 1908

Geldolph Adriaan Kessler made this photograph "In the Central Park" with a camera and photographic materials, though the when of it is a mystery! Look at the way the light falls, soft and diffuse, creating this hazy, dreamlike atmosphere. The sepia tones give it a timeless quality, right? You can almost smell the grass and feel the warmth of the sun. The flatness of the image is something I see often in my own work, a kind of collapsing of space into one plane. The composition is really striking. The figure in the foreground, the lone stroller in the park, they're not quite centered, and that asymmetry creates a kind of tension. What are they thinking? Where are they going? It's like a little stage set, and we're all just passing through. It reminds me of some of the early street photography of artists like Eugène Atget. His work also had that sense of capturing fleeting moments, the poetry of everyday life. Ultimately, the best art is about embracing that ambiguity, that feeling of not quite knowing, and letting your imagination fill in the gaps.