Gezicht op een kerk en een rivier te Graubünden before 1896

Frédéric Boissonnas captured this silver print of a church and river in Graubünden, Switzerland. Boissonnas was part of a generation grappling with modernity. Photography, with its promise of objective truth, provided a means to document a world in transition. Yet, in his lens, we see more than just a record. The choice of a church, a symbol of enduring faith, alongside the flowing river, evokes the passage of time. The composition invites a dialogue between permanence and change, between the spiritual and the natural. The monochromatic tones lend the scene a timeless quality, as though the image exists outside the constraints of a particular moment. Boissonnas offers us not just a landscape, but a meditation on existence. His photograph is an emotional experience that encourages contemplation.