Plant op een balkon 1907 - 1930

Adolphe Burdet captured this ‘Plant op een balkon’ with what looks like an early colour photographic process. It’s got a hazy filter on the world, like those Instagram options, but I doubt that’s what Burdet was doing. I wonder what it was like for him as he framed this view. It’s all very still, but there’s a slight blur which means he would have had to focus on composing the scene. It’s a dance. So he must have waited. I’m with him. The soft lilac of the bougainvillea pulls me in. I can see the light, the stillness. He’s made something very intimate. It has a certain melancholy, like Bonnard or Vuillard, those domestic interiors filled with light and shadow. And I'm also reminded of so many other artists who have found inspiration in the everyday. This image speaks of those connections across time.