Isabel Wachenheimer, Engelse Tuinen, München, september 1930 1930s

This photo, ‘Isabel Wachenheimer, Engelse Tuinen, München, september 1930’ was probably captured with a simple camera, maybe a Kodak Brownie, giving it that slightly grainy, soft focus. The lack of color adds to the sense of it being a moment captured in time, a memory. You can almost feel the cool air of a late Munich summer day. The artist's way of capturing light is particularly striking here. Look at how the light catches the little girl's dress. The texture seems almost palpable. The dress stands out in contrast to the darker, blurred background of trees and buildings. And the way the ground is rendered, it's almost abstract, like a field of tiny dots creating a soft, diffuse surface. This image reminds me a little of Gerhard Richter’s black and white paintings from photographs - that blurring of memory, of lived experience. It's like the artist is saying something about the nature of seeing, of remembering. It's about process, about how we piece together these fleeting moments into something lasting.