Dootje en Wilhelmina van Zijll de Jong met anderen zwemmend 1930 - 1935

This photograph shows Dootje and Wilhelmina van Zijll de Jong swimming with others, and was created by an anonymous artist. The tones of grey blend almost seamlessly, the water reflecting light in a wash of shadow and shine. What gets me about this image is how much it says with so little. The anonymous artist uses the full tonal range of black and white to create shape and texture. Look how the ripple of the water is suggested, with no hard lines, just gentle gradations of dark and light. And isn't it curious that one of the figures has a hand raised, as if in acknowledgement of the image being captured, as if to say 'we are here!'? The composition reminds me of some of the bathers by Cézanne, but the lack of clarity and the photographic process opens the piece up to something new, a sense of longing for something we can't quite grasp. And maybe that's the point, a picture can only ever hint at the joy of submersion, the cool embrace of water on a hot day.