Ruïne van de abdij van Pointe Saint-Mathieu 1901

This photograph of the Ruin of the Abbey of Pointe Saint-Mathieu was made by Delizy, but we don't know exactly when. It feels like the kind of photo that just emerges, slowly, from a chemical bath. It's sepia-toned, all browns and creams, and the light does this amazing dance, skipping across the rough stones. You can almost feel the weight of those arches, and see the way the light carves out each individual stone. Look closely at the columns - how the light makes them almost disappear into the shadows at the bottom. The whole thing feels haunted, or maybe just really, really old. There's a ghost-like figure in the background, possibly a person, or maybe just a trick of the light. There's something about this scene that reminds me of Piranesi’s etchings of Roman ruins – that same sense of awe and melancholy, and the sense of art as an ongoing dialogue between the past and the present. It’s a real stunner.