Gezicht op het Trostburg te Waidbruck before 1903

This photograph by W. Schmidt-Diehler captures a distant view of Trostburg Castle in Waidbruck. It's interesting how photography, even in its early days, allowed us to examine a subject so far away in such detail. The composition is fairly straightforward, with the castle perched atop a hill and fading into the background. But it’s the texture of the image itself that grabs me. The way the light and shadow play across the landscape, creating a depth that feels both real and slightly dreamlike, it makes me wonder about the conditions under which it was taken. There’s a softness to the image, a gentle blurring of the edges that gives it an almost painterly quality. It makes me think of the landscapes of Caspar David Friedrich. Both artists use atmospheric perspective to create a sense of awe and wonder. It's like they're inviting us to lose ourselves in the vastness of nature, to contemplate our place in the world.