Gezicht op de baai van Trapani, Sicilië 1857 - 1914

Curator: The silence in this photograph just grabbed me. I mean, look at those stoic rocks in the foreground – it feels like time stopped there centuries ago. Editor: You've homed in on a key aspect right away! This is “Gezicht op de baai van Trapani, Sicilië," a gelatin silver print, captured sometime between 1857 and 1914. The photographer was Giorgio Sommer, and it's held here at the Rijksmuseum. Its compositional rigor appeals to my formalist eye—notice how the asymmetrical positioning of land, sea, and sky leads toward an ever-receding vanishing point! Curator: Yeah, the vanishing point. But for me, it's about this quiet loneliness. The muted colours—browns and greys everywhere—give a sense of detachment, as if Sommer wanted us to see the world as a distant memory, like we were staring into an antique mirror. It also shows remaining negative space with soft tones. I love how Romantic that is. Editor: It certainly has Romantic undercurrents. The soft focus throughout—perhaps due to the photographic technology of the period—lends a dreamy, nostalgic air, obscuring any truly crisp detail of Trapani. It’s interesting to examine the relationship between these textured rocks—leading almost like a rampart—and the city’s orderly architecture in the distance. Curator: See, that’s where we split, probably! You look for the neatness, and I see this constant tug-of-war. You have imposing man-made things in the distance clashing with what the nature gives us freely in the foreground. But even more impressive, the overall tonal similarity unifies these distinct visual layers to show a complete harmonic scene of balance, where one exists for the other! Editor: It certainly does invite that kind of dialectical thinking. Note, also, the carefully articulated tonal gradients, particularly within the cloud-like sky, as if mirroring the tranquility of the still bay water, which then contrasts against the ragged geological structure in the fore. There is even visual rhythm from foreground, horizon and ships with soft tones. Curator: Well, looking at it now with all of that considered… I just noticed the boats! Suddenly, I imagine them bustling with life, and that still distance gets so closer that those sailors’ dreams fill my imagination. Sommer pulled off some impressive trick to get so much action with such subdued tones. Editor: A final, poignant touch, indeed. Sommer leaves us contemplating permanence, change, and our own place amidst their dance across time.