Gezicht op het Trostburg te Waidbruck before 1903

Here is the photograph Gezicht op het Trostburg te Waidbruck by W. Schmidt-Diehler, neatly presented on the pages of a book. The tones of the photograph are soft and grayscale, like gentle clouds, and the castle sits high on the hill, and the image is carefully cropped within its square frame. It's like an old dream, isn't it? Imagine Schmidt-Diehler trekking up that hill with their equipment. What do you think they were thinking as they framed this shot? Were they thinking of other landscape photographers, or were they totally in their own world? Photography is kind of like painting. It takes patience to build up the image, layer after layer, like slow glazes or the accumulation of thick impasto. And the framing? It's like when a painter makes a decisive mark, pulling the whole thing together. It has a lot to do with how we see the world and what we choose to show and keep secret. These choices all add up to the picture, which adds up to experience.