Interieur met het koorhek van de Grote of Sint-Laurenskerk te Rotterdam 1911

This image depicts the interior of the Grote of Sint-Laurenskerk in Rotterdam. The photo is kind of sepia-toned, it has a hushed, reverent quality. You can almost hear the echoes in the vast space. I imagine the photographer, an anonymous soul from Monumentenzorg, setting up their camera, carefully composing the shot to capture the choir screen's intricate ironwork. Did they have to wait for the right moment, when the light streamed in just so? The screen itself is a marvel. All those delicate patterns, repeated and varied, like a visual hymn. It reminds me of Agnes Martin’s grids, a kind of meditative repetition that invites you to get lost in the details. I wonder if the ironworkers who made it thought of themselves as artists. What was it like to shape such rigid material into something so graceful? It’s all about mark-making, in a way. The photographer framing the shot, the ironworker bending the metal. Each choice, each gesture, leaves its trace.