Gezicht op het Binnenhof met de Ridderzaal tijdens de restauratie 1902

Here's a photograph of the Binnenhof in The Hague, a kind of pale, sepia wash, taken by someone at Monumentenzorg. Look at the fuzzy softness of the trees and the hazy architecture of the Ridderzaal. You can almost feel the dampness in the air. I wonder what it was like to stand there with the camera, trying to capture this moment of restoration, this fleeting intersection of the old and the new. What were they thinking about as they framed the shot? Did they feel the weight of history, the responsibility of preserving the past for future generations? Maybe they were just trying to get the light right, to capture the essence of the building before the sun shifted. It’s funny how a simple image can evoke so many questions. It makes you think about the process, the person behind the lens, and all the unseen layers of time and intention embedded in a single frame. I often feel that way when I’m painting – it’s as though I am in conversation with all the artists who have ever picked up a brush. It is one big conversation, and this photograph is a little piece of it.