Gezicht op een spoorweg met station en watertoren in Le Lioran 1902

This small photographic print shows a view of a railway with a station and water tower in Le Lioran by an artist called Delizy. I love the softness of the sepia tones, the way they flatten the space and create this dreamlike vista. It makes me wonder what it was like to be Delizy, setting up their camera on this hillside, carefully framing the scene. I imagine them, hidden under a dark cloth, squinting at the ground glass, trying to capture the immensity of the landscape in this tiny rectangle. There’s a tension between the industrial and the pastoral, between the man-made railway cutting through the landscape and the natural beauty of the trees and hills. It reminds me of the work of other landscape artists who are interested in the relationship between humans and the environment. It’s all one big conversation that has been going on for centuries and will continue long after we’re gone, inspiring artists to see and represent the world in new and unexpected ways.