Interieur van de Hervormde Kerk te Sleen 1903

This photograph of the interior of the Hervormde Kerk at Sleen captures light as a ghostly apparition. You can almost feel the photographer’s hand steadying the camera, willing the scene to imprint itself on the film. I wonder about the choice to shoot in such a way that the architecture seems to fade into the background, with only a hint of definition around the edges of the arches. Were they thinking about the contrast between the permanence of the stone and the ephemeral quality of light? Or maybe it was just a technical challenge to capture a large interior with the equipment they had. It makes me think about Agnes Martin's subtle grids or the way a painter like Gerhard Richter blurs his subjects, as if trying to capture a memory rather than a fixed image. Photography, like painting, invites us to see the world through the eyes of another, transforming a familiar space into a realm of mystery.