Twee foto's van het dorp Chernex bij Montreux 1930 - 1934

These two photographs of Chernex, near Montreux, were taken by Frank Willem van den Berg, likely with a simple camera, and mounted in a dark olive-green album. The photos look like snapshots, capturing the Swiss landscape. I love the way these images are composed of so many tones of grey. The textures are amazing. In the top image, the crisp, clean lines of the chalet set against the diffuse, blurry mountain range is quite striking. You can almost feel the cold, thin air, and see the play of light and shadow on the chalet walls. And below, the cluster of bare trees in the foreground, with the jagged mountain range in the distance. They create a kind of visual rhythm. Van den Berg’s work reminds me of the landscapes of the American painter, Marsden Hartley, who found a stark beauty in the landscapes of Europe and America. But, of course, while Hartley embraces colour, Van den Berg here seems to suggest that black and white photography is also a form which embraces ambiguity and multiple interpretations.