Bezoek aan Kampen 1932 - 1939

This is 'Bezoek aan Kampen' by Herman Besselaar. It's a series of photographic postcards laid out in a grid on a grey page. The gelatin silver prints have all been carefully arranged and captioned in German script. I'm really interested in how different forms of painting offer such different ways of seeing and experiencing the world. And so too, I imagine, for photography. I wonder what Besselaar was thinking and feeling when he made this. It's a bit like a sketchbook, almost diaristic in its approach. I feel a strong sense of place, of a particular street, a church, a building. The final image is of rooftops, a kind of goodbye to the town. Artists are always in conversation and exchange of ideas across time, inspiring each other’s creativity. This piece embraces a certain ambiguity which allows for multiple interpretations. It is a work that embodies memory and the experience of a particular place and time.