Tentboot in Havelaarsluis 1900 - 1913

This beautiful photograph of a tentboat in Havelaarsluis was taken by Augusta Curiel. Imagine her setting up the camera, framing the image just so... There’s a stillness to the photograph that makes me think of early modernist paintings. Like a Morandi still life, the scene is quiet and contemplative. You can feel the weight of the structure on the right, and almost feel the heavy light in the air. The boat’s dark reflection on the water seems to double the boat. The boat sits in the foreground; it makes me think about the relationship between perception and reality, and how the artist must have thought about this too. Curiel was obviously in conversation with the visual language of her time, but she was also exploring her own personal vision of the world. Her work gives us the freedom to linger, question, and imagine.