Gezicht op de tuin van Getsemane, Jeruzalem c. 1867 - 1877

Félix Bonfils captured this view of the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem using photography. The sepia tones and sharp focus create an immediate sense of historical distance, yet the composition draws us into the present. The strong horizontal lines of the garden's layout are striking, bisected by the vertical thrust of the trees. Notice how the orderly fenced plots in the foreground contrast sharply with the wilder, more rugged landscape rising in the background towards the city walls. This interplay between the cultivated and the untamed speaks to the very nature of representation. Photography, often seen as a direct recording of reality, is here carefully structured. Bonfils uses formal elements to create not just a picture but a reading of the site, perhaps reflecting on the tension between human control and natural processes, between the sacred and the mundane. The photograph invites us to consider how we frame and understand the world around us through visual forms.