Begraafplaats te Bath, Pennsylvania c. 1890 - 1920

This is W.D. Walter's photographic print of a cemetery in Bath, Pennsylvania. It's rendered in this dreamy cyanotype that gives the whole scene this kind of otherworldly feel, like looking back in time. I’m imagining Walter there, setting up his camera amidst the gravestones. What was he thinking about? Was he thinking about the people who were buried there, or about his own mortality? Or was he just captured by the shapes and forms of the cemetery? Maybe the way the light was hitting them, or the stillness of the place? I think there’s a kind of melancholy beauty to it, the endless repetition of the headstones, like waves on the ocean. It’s an eerie echo of life. This reminds me of Caspar David Friedrich and his landscapes that invoke feelings of solitude. It makes me think about what it means to look at an image and how it shapes our perception of the world around us. Each artwork is part of a larger conversation.