Man demonstreert hoe de Boeren vochten vanuit de loopgraven bij Colenso 1901

This stereo image shows how the Boers fought at Colenso, and it was made by an anonymous photographer. The limited palette of browns and tans gives it a kind of understated drama, almost like a drawing. It shows how photography, even with its claim to objective representation, is always a matter of choices. There’s something about the texture that gets me. The way the earth of the trench is built up from marks on the photographic paper. It reminds me that seeing is always also about touching, about the physical stuff of the world. The way the figure is tucked into the trench makes them part of the landscape. It puts me in mind of Philip Guston, another artist who embraced process, and whose mark-making redefined the possibilities of painting. Like Guston, this photographer invites us to consider art as a space of constant questioning and reinvention.