Along the Rocks Opposite Berry's Landing 1903

Henry Hamilton Bennett made this stereo card, Along the Rocks Opposite Berry's Landing, sometime in the late nineteenth century. This is a double image, like two eyes seeing, that gives the scene a 3D effect when viewed through a stereoscope. Look at how the light plays on the rocky overhang, with the horizontal lines leading your eye to the figure on the raft. The sepia tones give it a timeless quality, but that rock face feels so present, so material, it’s almost touchable. I love the way the composition is structured, with the dark rocks framing the lighter river and sky. There's something about the way the artist captured this scene that reminds me of some of Gustave Courbet’s landscapes, that same attention to detail and texture, that feeling of being right there in the landscape. I think art, like a good memory, can keep a moment alive forever.