Drie foto's van een fontein en een gezelschap in de tuin van Villa Tritone, Sorrento 1950

Norbert van den Berg made these three gelatin silver prints of a fountain and a group in the garden of Villa Tritone, Sorrento. The photographs are glued onto this backing page. I love this kind of low-key presentation, it feels like a casual snapshot into someone's personal world. The way the photographs are placed on the page feels intuitive, not overly designed. There are some handwritten words underneath in pencil, "Silenvs Ebrivs". What catches my eye is how each image has its own way of capturing light, and how the photographic material renders tone and texture. The central image of the fountain, like a stone shadow, seems to draw you into a secret world. The light is dappled, the forms are blurred, and the image seems more about atmosphere than detail. The prints on the page create a dialogue between light and shadow, between the human and the natural. Looking at the Villa Tritone shots, I'm reminded of the work of artists like Gerhard Richter, who also explore the tension between photography and painting, realism and abstraction.