Zuidzijde van de Sint-Gertrudiskerk te Oirle 1904

This photograph, Zuidzijde van de Sint-Gertrudiskerk te Oirle, was produced by an anonymous photographer working for Monumentenzorg. There's something very quiet and still about this pale image. It reminds me how an artist's process can almost mummify a subject, embalming a moment in time with strange tonality. Here, the tonal range is so narrow. It's like a world seen through a sepia filter. The light seems to come from everywhere and nowhere, flattening the form and almost rendering the architecture into a paper model. Look at the crosses in the foreground. They seem to emerge from the earth organically, like strange, stony plants in a graveyard. This makes me think about Atget, who similarly documented buildings in Paris around the turn of the century. Ultimately, this picture feels unresolved, caught somewhere between documentation and something more dreamlike. It reminds us that even within the most rigid structures, ambiguity and atmosphere can still flourish.