Gezicht op een station van een kabelbaan op de Tafelberg en in de verte de Leeukop in Kaapstad c. 1940 - 1960

This monochromatic photograph by Blackshaw captures a station of a cable car on Table Mountain, with Lion's Head in the distance, in Cape Town. I imagine Blackshaw standing there, clicking the shutter, and the image coming into being through trial and error. It might have been like creating a painting with layers, where each layer reveals a different aspect of the scene, shifting and emerging through intuition. The surface of the photograph is smooth, but the image itself has a lot of texture, especially in the rocky terrain. The contrast between light and shadow creates a sense of depth and dimension. It reminds me of other painters who have explored the relationship between landscape and abstraction, like Gerhard Richter, whose blurred photographs capture a similar sense of ambiguity and uncertainty. Blackshaw and Richter are in a creative exchange of ideas across time, inspiring creativity and embodied expression that embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning over fixed readings.