Brug bij het Zomerpaleis te Peking before 1920

This sepia photograph by Donald Mennie captures a bridge at the Summer Palace in Peking. It’s a study in contrasts, isn’t it? I can imagine Mennie setting up his camera, maybe adjusting the lens slightly to capture the light on the water. The bridge itself becomes this strong, curved form, a kind of gestural mark against the landscape. I wonder what it was like to be there, trying to find the right balance between the architecture and the natural world. It reminds me of those old black and white photographs by painters like Alfred Stieglitz. They were also trying to see the world in new ways, to find abstraction in reality. In a way, photography has been another form of painting all along, embracing the fluidity and transience of light. They are all in conversation, each inspiring a creative response in the other.