Hotel-restaurant Nomera in Nizhniy Novgorod met in de deuropening de dochter van Joseph Cheetham 1903 - 1904

This faded photograph by Joseph Cheetham captures the Hotel-restaurant Nomera in Nizhniy Novgorod. The limited sepia palette feels less like a deliberate aesthetic choice and more like the unavoidable effect of time, which I find really interesting. The image looks like it’s almost disappearing before our eyes. There’s a kind of ghostly quality to the whole scene. The bricks of the building, the signage, even the figures in the horse-drawn cart seem to be fading into the background. But what’s amazing is how much detail still remains. Look at the curtains on the balcony, or the tiny figure in the doorway. It’s as if these small details are clinging on to existence. I feel that this photograph is less about capturing a specific moment in time and more about reflecting on the very process of how things disappear. This image reminds me of the work of Gerhard Richter and his blurred photographs, inviting us to consider the ambiguous nature of memory. Ultimately, Cheetham’s photograph is less about what we see and more about how we see and what it means to remember.