Interieur van de vestibule van Veerkade 15 te Den Haag

This silver gelatin print of the Veerkade 15 vestibule in The Hague was made in April 1903 by an anonymous photographer working for Monumentenzorg. Look at how the photographer’s choice of sepia tones and soft focus creates a dream-like atmosphere, obscuring details while suggesting a space caught between construction and decay. The photo is all about texture, from the corroded walls to the stacked frames and the barred window. There's a real tension here, as the horizontal lines of the stored frames lead us toward an unseeable space, while the verticals of the doorway and window frame our gaze. The details are obscured, but the overall effect is to suggest the act of seeing itself, like looking at a painting being built up in layers. The composition and the photographer's specific tonal choices call to mind the interiors of Vilhelm Hammershøi, who, like this photographer, embraced ambiguity and multiple interpretations over fixed or definitive meanings.