Gebouwen onder bomen 1903 - 1907

This photograph, "Gebouwen onder bomen," whose maker is unknown, presents buildings under trees in tones of gray. There's something about the way the light falls, almost evenly, that makes me think about artmaking as a patient process, a kind of waiting for the right moment. The photo's surface is smooth, almost serene, and the color palette is reduced to a scale of subtle tonal shifts. This limitation invites us to focus on the texture and the play of light, in the crowns of the palm trees, for example. Notice how the shapes are both distinct and dissolve into each other, especially in the way the vegetation merges the buildings with the surrounding landscape. It is as if the buildings are gently sinking into the nature that surrounds them. In terms of art as conversation, the image reminds me of the quiet observation in the work of Eugène Atget, who recorded the vanishing architecture of Paris with a similar, melancholic eye.