Overstroomd gebied in Parijs gezien vanaf een trap 1910 - 1911

G. Dangereux made this photograph of a flooded area in Paris, as seen from a staircase. It’s a picture made of greys, and murky browns. It’s not just recording something, it’s a mood. The surface is softly blurred, like memory itself, with the flooded landscape spread out before us, viewed from the top of some steps. The eye is drawn to the horizon line which bisects the image in two. The composition is bisected by the dark verticals of the staircase. There is a pole or lampost slap bang in the middle, like a full stop. In its quiet way, it reminds me of Atget, and that kind of flaneur sensibility. It’s a quiet scene, but it feels like a place where something dramatic has happened, or is about to happen. Like a stage set. This ambiguity is something that art does so well.