Centraal Station gezien naar het noordoosten met op de voorgrond een schip before 1907

Andries Jager captured this image of Centraal Station looking northeast with a ship in the foreground, on a small rectangular plate. The sepia tones give the scene a timeless quality, almost like a memory fading at the edges. It’s amazing how a limited palette can evoke so much. The texture of the photograph itself is smooth, but within the image, you can feel the grit of the city, the dampness of the water. Look at the way the light catches the edge of the ship, how it defines the shapes of the figures on board, and the building in the background. It's not just about recording what's there; it’s about shaping our experience of it. You can really feel the relationship between light and form in the image; it’s almost sculptural. It reminds me of the way Gustave Caillebotte uses light and shadow in his paintings of Paris, finding the beauty in the ordinary. Photography, like any art form, is a process of selection and interpretation, inviting us to see the world through another's eyes.