Gezicht op berglandschap gezien vanuit een bosrijke omgeving, Oostenrijk 1906

This stereograph by Geldolph Adriaan Kessler shows a mountain landscape in Austria, viewed from a forest. Imagine him looking through the camera, a landscape opening before him. The photograph captures a particular slice of the world, its greyscale tones rendering a vision of the Austrian mountains. I see the landscape in layers— the solid mass of the mountain and then the soft textures of the trees. There's a tension between stillness and movement, the trees frozen in time, almost like the landscape is caught mid-breath. I wonder what Kessler was thinking as he framed this shot. Was he contemplating the sublime power of nature, or perhaps the quiet solitude of the mountains? Maybe he was thinking about how, like a painter, he was framing the world. I’m left to wonder about the conversations artists have across generations and media.