Tak van een spierstruik in bloei c. 1900 - 1930

Richard Tepe made this photograph of a flowering shrub, sometime in the early 20th century. I love the subtlety of it, the way it captures the almost imperceptible shifts in tone and texture. It feels like a quiet meditation. Look at the surface, it's not just a flat, lifeless thing. You can almost feel the grain of the paper, the way the light catches on the tiny fibers. And the color, that soft, sepia tone, it's like a memory, a whisper from the past. The flowers themselves are delicate, almost translucent, their petals like tiny, fragile wings. Notice how they cluster together, each one slightly different, each one contributing to the overall feeling of abundance. There's a kind of stillness to this image, a sense of quiet contemplation. It reminds me of the work of Karl Blossfeldt, who also found beauty in the details of the natural world. Art invites us to slow down, to pay attention, and to find wonder in the everyday.