Gezicht op de Dam te Amsterdam tijdens werkzaamheden voor de verruiming van de Dam, 1916 1916

This photograph, taken by Barend Arendsen in 1916, shows the Dam Square in Amsterdam during construction, a moment of transformation captured in sepia tones. Look at the bare earth in the foreground, it’s such a contrast to the buildings further back. There's a rawness, an exposure, that’s really compelling. The photograph feels almost like a drawing, built up with subtle modulations of light and shadow. It’s all about process, about making, about seeing the city as a site of constant change. The texture is smooth, almost velvety, with details emerging gradually as your eyes adjust. The scaffolding around the building is a delicate lattice, a beautiful interruption in the urban landscape, really playing with surface and depth. It reminds me a little of Atget’s photographs of Paris, capturing a city in transition, a record of time passing. These images embrace the provisional, the incomplete, as a reminder that nothing is ever truly finished, which is also how I feel about my own paintings.