Landschap in Italië before 1902

Heinrich Kuhn made this photograph of an Italian landscape sometime in the early 20th century, using a printing process with soft focus. I can only imagine Kuhn standing on that hillside in Italy, squinting into the sun, trying to capture the misty atmosphere of the scene. It’s a painterly photograph, really. Look at the way the light dapples the trees and clings to the clouds. What was he thinking when he decided to print it like this? Was he trying to emulate the loose brushwork of the Impressionists? Or evoke some feeling of Romantic sublimity? The tones are so modulated, soft and dreamy, and the composition has a strong diagonal, like you might find in Caspar David Friedrich. Whatever his intentions, Kuhn's photograph reminds us that artists are always in conversation with one another, borrowing and riffing on each other’s ideas across time and media. And that, for me, is part of what makes art so endlessly fascinating!