Jongens bouwen een bruggetje in ondergelopen land in een buitenwijk van Parijs 1910 - 1911

This photograph, Jongens bouwen een bruggetje in ondergelopen land in een buitenwijk van Parijs, captures a moment of ingenuity amidst the mundane, where a group of boys is constructing a bridge in a flooded suburban landscape outside Paris. I'm thinking about the artist's decision to frame this particular scene, capturing the boys and the flooded landscape. It feels almost like a stage set, doesn't it? Dangereux is presenting us with a scene that could be anywhere and nowhere. There’s a fragility to the structure they're building, a sense of improvisation and play but also real need. I imagine the artist feeling a sense of responsibility to document what they are seeing. There's an empathy in Dangereux's work, a feeling of standing alongside his subjects and showing us what they see. Dangereux’s picture also calls to mind the work of other painters such as Gustave Caillebotte's paintings of everyday Parisian life. Artists are always in dialogue, and even something small like this image is part of that grand conversation. It’s a reminder that every artist stands on the shoulders of giants, or maybe, in this case, on a rickety bridge.