Landhoofd van de brug over de Oude Maas in aanbouw aan de linkeroever bij Spijkenisse 1900 - 1908

This photograph was taken by Arnaud Pistoor and Zoon in August 1900, and you can tell it’s a photograph because it’s concerned with what's actually *there*. I'm struck by the scaffolding in the foreground, like a formal experiment, a structure that mimics the bridge and the landscape that will be built up. Its not unlike a painting; that initial layer of marks that bears little resemblance to the finished piece, but informs everything that follows. Look closely at the space within the scaffolding, like a canvas. What do you see? Mud, water, shadow? It's all the same, just different shades, like an Agnes Martin grid. The photograph offers a glimpse into the making of something significant, but like all making it begins with a single mark, a muddy mess that is both nothing and everything at once. I am reminded of Bernd and Hilla Becher, whose grids of industrial architecture are a study in repetition, difference and the poetry of the everyday.