Gezicht op een vallei bij Turtmann, Zwitserland before 1899

This monochrome photograph captures a valley near Turtmann, Switzerland, immortalizing the sublimity of nature. The prominent symbol here is the rushing river, a motif that mirrors the ceaseless flow of time itself. Consider how water has been portrayed in art across cultures—from ancient Egyptian depictions of the Nile as a source of life to Renaissance allegories where rivers symbolize the passage from mortality to eternity. The river's visual echo resonates with Heraclitus's ancient philosophical assertion that one cannot step into the same river twice, for it is ever-changing. The emotional undercurrent here is profound. Water, with its fluidity, evokes the subconscious—a space of both creation and destruction. The collective memory of deluges and rebirths finds a silent witness in this seemingly simple scene. Like a snake shedding its skin, the river’s symbolism resurfaces, shaped and reshaped by the epochs through which it flows, each time carrying whispers of what has been and what is yet to come.