Ruïne van Kasteel Brakel 1930

This photograph, ‘Ruin of Castle Brakel’, was made at some point by an anonymous photographer. It reminds me of the way a drawing emerges, the way it almost develops itself. The limited tonal range makes you look closer, doesn't it? The whites are just a little bit brighter, the blacks just a little bit darker, all working together to create an atmosphere. Look at the middle ground, how the light catches the crumbling wall – the texture is so palpable you feel you could reach out and touch it. The rest of the image seems to dissolve into an evocative fog, with only the barest suggestion of form and light. It’s a testament to the power of suggestion. There’s something so beautiful about ruins, the way they remind us of the passage of time, and how nature reclaims what was once built. You see this sense of time and change in Gerhard Richter’s blurred paintings, where forms seem to emerge and dissolve simultaneously. Art is always about seeing, seeing in new ways.