Militairen tijdens een oefening before 1915

This photograph, Militairen tijdens een oefening, was created by an anonymous artist. The sepia tones feel so warm, it almost reads like a memory. There’s a kind of awkwardness to this photo, the way the soldiers are arranged under the tree. I can imagine the photographer arranging them, trying to get everyone in frame, maybe feeling a bit like a stage director. I wonder what the photographer was thinking, what they were hoping to convey. Was it about the exercise, or the men themselves? There’s an element of chance involved in photography. Moments shift, light changes, and the perfect shot might elude you. It reminds me of the unpredictable nature of painting, where the canvas can take on a life of its own. Maybe this artist was in dialogue with other image makers, consciously or not. Ultimately, art-making is an exchange of ideas, each feeding into the next, inspiring new forms of seeing and thinking.