Gezicht op het Kidron-dal, Israël 1903

This is a stereoscopic card of the Kidron Valley in Israel, by Richard Sochor. These cards were so popular, they let you see a place faraway up close in a new way. What strikes me here is the texture, which is all about light, and how it bounces off of every crag and crevice. In this process, he's making something incredibly detailed, almost obsessive. There are so many different surfaces in this one shot, from the fine dust on the ground to the big, blocky stones rising up into the sky. The contrast makes me think about a lot of what painters do. We try to catch the light in every stroke, playing with how the surface of a painting meets your eye. It’s a way of making something out of almost nothing, using shades and tones to create an illusion of depth. Like Atget's documentation of pre-war Paris, it really allows you to look at another time through another's eye. It's a constant back-and-forth, a conversation that never really ends.