Baboons, Arnhem, Netherlands 1989

Volker Seding made this photograph of Baboons in Arnhem, Netherlands using a camera. The way the light hits the scene makes you wonder about the texture, about the process, the surface, the way something is built. Have a look at how Seding captured the wall on the left. It’s this man-made cliff face, dotted with what look like little windows, or maybe escape hatches. They seem arbitrarily placed, and there’s something very casual and almost slap-dash in the way they are arranged. It’s like the baboons have their own modernist apartment block, except, it’s made of earth. This earthiness, this attention to texture and surface is reminiscent of artists like Anselm Kiefer, who also work with these raw, unrefined materials to make something evocative and thought-provoking. Ultimately, photography like art is really all about seeing, and about opening our eyes to the strange beauty of the world around us.