Drie gerstaren tegen egale achtergrond c. 1900 - 1940

Richard Tepe made this photographic print, Drie gerstaren tegen egale achtergrond, in the Netherlands, at the end of the 19th century. It’s not a painting, but I can still get my head around it. What a stunner! The sepia tones are really hitting me. It’s like he’s pulled these stalks of barley right out of a dream. I wonder what Tepe was thinking? Was he trying to capture their essence, or was he just geeking out on the way the light caught those little hairs? I can see him now, carefully arranging the barley against that flat background, trying to get the perfect shot. It makes me think about Karl Blossfeldt and his obsessive plant photography, each image cooler than the last. Anyway, this piece reminds me that artists are always looking, always experimenting. Each photograph, each painting, is like a little conversation, a way of seeing and sharing the world with each other.