Toren van de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk te Meijel 1890 - 1920

This photograph, Toren van de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk te Meijel, was created by an anonymous photographer with the agency Monumentenzorg. The print is small, monochrome, and all about capturing the surface of this church tower, you can really feel the texture of the brick. When I zoom in, I get totally absorbed in this kind of quiet observation of form; the photo feels like a study of how light falls across the planes of the building. The gradations of tone are so subtle it’s almost like a drawing. I’m intrigued by the inscription on the right side; it's handwritten, and it looks like the photographer added it after the print was made, as an afterthought. That detail reminds me of the photographs of Eugène Atget, who meticulously documented the architecture of Paris, making sure to capture every detail. There's something so poetic about the way the anonymous artist recorded the church, allowing it to speak for itself.