Drie foto's van de tuin van Villa Tritone, Sorrento 1949 - 1950

Editor: This is "Three Photos of the Garden of Villa Tritone, Sorrento," a gelatin silver print by Norbert van den Berg, dating from 1949-1950. There is something wonderfully calm and collected about these photographs, grouped together, perhaps reflecting an idealised landscape, but they are somewhat hard to read. What do you make of this arrangement, its construction? Curator: It's compelling how van den Berg uses the structure of the photo album page itself to frame a meditation on pictorial space. Note how each individual photograph offers a distinct perspective – a winding path, a formal garden with statuary, an enclosed pergola. Consider each image's tonal range from deep shadows to stark highlights, and how that contributes to its particular spatial dynamic. Editor: So, are you suggesting he is more interested in exploring form and composition rather than representing reality? Curator: Precisely. Observe how the black and white medium abstracts the natural forms. The arrangement also produces a dialogue between light and shadow, solidity and void. What compositional echoes or contrasts do you see? Editor: I notice how the shadows in each image play with shapes that also seem solid…like a contrast between the ephemeral and the eternal. What did you think of this work upon first viewing it? Curator: Initially, the contrast in clarity drew me in. It has that tension between the immediate photographic capture and an enduring classicism, made complex by its arrangement on a single page, which makes the observer reassess each shot in relation to the others. Editor: I agree, I am really seeing how the relationships between each separate element produce something new as well.