Spoorbrug over de Ci Somang in aanbouw Possibly 1931

This black and white photograph captures the construction of the Spoorbrug over de Ci Somang. The artist is unknown and the date is not documented, but it resides in the Rijksmuseum, a shadow of a moment. I can imagine the photographer, amidst the dense landscape, trying to capture the immensity of the project, the bridge spanning the river. Look at the way the steel beams intersect, creating a web against the backdrop of the forest. Maybe they thought about geometry and landscape, and maybe not! What are photographs if not a means of making a kind of drawing? And the photograph itself, the material of it, the choices that the artist made… I think of all the anonymous artists who’ve worked with cameras to capture a scene. Each click is an exchange, a conversation through time. It’s like a song that keeps getting replayed.