Terpen nabij Tószeg 1928

Jan Lanting captured this view of Terpen near Tószeg with a camera sometime in the past. The print is sepia toned, which gives it a kind of hazy timelessness. The composition is divided into rough zones of tone and texture. The foreground is a tangle of grass, then a large field fades into the horizon with a cluster of buildings on the skyline. The horizon is quite high, with only a small slither of sky. This gives the image a feeling of being grounded, like a dense mass is pressing down from above. I keep looking at the dark patch at the bottom of the frame. It’s a hole in the landscape, a void that anchors the whole picture. It's a reminder that photography, like painting, is about seeing and not seeing, revealing and concealing. Lanting gives us a view, but what he leaves out is just as important. It makes you think about what else is out there, beyond the frame. Art is always an invitation to imagine.