Pilaar van Pompeius in Alexandrië before 1905

This small photograph by the Khardiache Frères shows us the Pilaar van Pompeius in Alexandrië. It’s hard to say when exactly it was made, but I love the way the photograph allows us to think about image-making as a kind of process. The surface of the image is quite matte, and the tones are all pretty close together, mostly greys and browns. This reminds me of the way Morandi would mix his colours, keeping them all in a similar register, so that the tonal relationships become really important. There are some tiny figures dotted around at the base of the pillar, which is so big that it almost goes out of the frame. The pillar itself is a fairly smooth grey colour, but it's darker at the bottom than at the top, and the marks and blemishes in the stone become more visible. The whole thing makes me think about the way we frame and monumentalize history, and also about the way history crumbles and fades over time.