Noordzijde van de Sint-Pertrusbasiliek te Oirschot 1890 - 1920

This photograph, Noordzijde van de Sint-Pertrusbasiliek te Oirschot, was made by an anonymous photographer working for Monumentenzorg. It’s all about the subtle gradations in tone, moving from light to shadow – a bit like mixing paint, you keep adding until it feels right. The image has a kind of sepia quality, which gives the old brickwork a warmth, but at the same time, it’s almost ghostly. Look how the brickwork is so sharply defined, but the window above looks almost like a drawing in the fog. It’s hard to believe that this was made with a camera, it looks like it was created with a soft brush. This reminds me of some of the early modernist photographers, people like Alfred Stieglitz, who were really interested in the way photography could be used to evoke a mood, a feeling, rather than just recording something. It’s like they were trying to make photography into something more like painting. Art is a conversation between artists across time, and a constant push and pull between different media.