Twee foto's van de familie Van den Berg tijdens een wandeling, april 1923 1923 - 1924

Hendrik Herman van den Berg made these two photographs of the Van den Berg family on a walk in April 1923. The way they’re presented together, on this aged cardboard, they become something more than just snapshots. There’s a casualness to the arrangement, a kind of off-the-cuff composition, which I can relate to in my own approach to painting. In the top image, the family is sitting on a small hill. In the lower image, they are arranged on and around a tree, like actors on a stage. The tonal range across the photographic surface is quite narrow, mainly variations of grays and browns which creates an atmosphere that is both muted and inviting. Look at the way they are holding walking sticks, they act almost like props to give a sense of purpose. You could read these images as a meditation on the act of observation itself. Think of this in relation to say, Eugene Atget. Ultimately, art invites us to engage with its ambiguity, to see the world through a lens of perpetual questioning.