Brug over een beek 1907 - 1935

Adolphe Burdet made this photograph called ‘Bridge over a Creek’, we don’t know when, but I can tell you how. The scene is awash with hazy earth tones, like a faded memory. It’s hard to tell what’s going on with this strange object. It's hard to say what's original and what's damage. The process, like life, has left its mark. Looking closely at the bridge, I see it's both there and not there. It's solid stone, yet dissolves into the foliage around it. It reminds me of Gerhard Richter's blurry paintings, where the subject seems to emerge from and recede into the paint simultaneously. There's a tension between representation and abstraction, between what is seen and what is felt. Like Richter, Burdet embraces ambiguity, inviting us to question the very nature of perception. In a world that demands clarity, this photograph whispers, "Maybe it's okay not to know."