Detail van een naald in een bal van een duim before 1904

This is an image of an early X-ray photograph titled 'Detail van een naald in een bal van een duim' and it was created by F.R.S. Hicks. What strikes me is its ghostly rendering of the unseen. The process here is revealed, not concealed. You see the hand, the needle, but they're veiled, made strange. The soft gradations of tone, from almost white to smoky gray, map the densities of flesh and bone, light passing through what we thought was solid. Look at the needle; a dark line cutting through the ethereal hand. It’s a bold, almost violent mark in this context, a disruption of the body’s fragile interior. This image reminds me of work by contemporary artists like Gerhard Richter, who explore the ambiguities of photographic representation. Like Richter, Hicks's photograph is not just about capturing an image but questioning the nature of seeing itself. It is a reminder that art, like science, is a process of discovery, filled with unexpected turns and endless possibilities.