Archeologische opgravingen in Hongarije 1928

This is "Archeologische opgravingen in Hongarije" by Jan Lanting, and it’s tough to say when exactly it was made, but the artist lived from 1896 to 1985. It's a photograph, but it has this incredible painterly quality, almost like an abstract expressionist landscape, or an image by Minor White. I find myself thinking about what it means to dig, to look beneath the surface for something, be it historical or pictorial. Look at the texture here; it's all about layers, the way the earth is built up, one stratum upon another. There is something incredibly compelling about the way Lanting captured this landscape. It is a conversation about the way seeing is always an interpretation, an excavation of what is right in front of us.