Detail van de Grafelijke Zalen op het Binnenhof tijdens de restauratie 1901 - 1902

Here is a photograph of the Grafelijke Zalen during restoration, taken at an unknown date by an anonymous photographer in the service of Monumentenzorg. It's one of those understated images that pulls you in. I imagine the photographer setting up their equipment, carefully framing the shot to capture the scene. They're trying to document the restoration process, but they also catch something else: a sense of time passing, of layers being peeled away to reveal the bones of the building. The light is soft, almost dreamlike, and the monochromatic palette gives everything a feeling of nostalgia. You can almost feel the cool air of the building, smell the dust and old wood. It's like the artist is saying, "Look, this is what we're doing, this is how we preserve history." But it's also a quiet meditation on change, on the way things fall apart and are put back together again. It reminds me of what Rauschenberg said, that painting relates to both art and life, and I reckon that’s true of photography too.