Gezicht op haven van Hamburg before 1901

This image, by Otto Scharf, shows a view of the port of Hamburg, and it looks like it may be from a photograph reproduced in a book. The way the halftone printing process renders the light and shadow creates a sense of atmosphere that's almost tangible. Look closely, and you can see how the texture of the image is made up of tiny dots, clustered together to create darker areas and spaced apart for the lighter ones. The smokestacks, ship masts, and rigging are built up from this granular texture. The overall effect is a play between clarity and ambiguity, where the sharp details of the harbor are softened by the hazy atmosphere. Like in the work of Gerhard Richter, this blurring is not a weakness, but an invitation to slow down, to linger over the details. A reminder that art is not about fixed meanings, but about the ongoing conversation between the viewer and the work.