Dorpsgezicht met groep kinderen before 1905

This tiny book print, Dorpsgezicht met groep kinderen, by Max Ferrars, captures a cluster of children in what looks like the Black Forest. The image is built up from small, almost pixelated marks, which, up close, break down into abstraction, but step back, and a scene emerges. The image is on this small piece of paper within a larger page; this work is about reproduction and framing, like a memory or a dream, mediated and slightly out of reach. The high contrast gives it an almost eerie quality. Look at the way the light falls on the buildings and the open space, drawing your eye through the image. It reminds me of some of Gerhard Richter's photo paintings where the image begins to dissolve and fade. Like Richter, Ferrars seems interested in the way images can both reveal and conceal. It’s like a whisper of a place, a suggestion of a story.