Gezicht op Interlaken, op de voorgrond de brouwerij van Emil Horn 1892 - 1930

Arthur Gabler made this photograph of Interlaken and the Emil Horn brewery, but I don’t know exactly when. It’s a sepia print, which has a way of flattening things out, but also creating a dreamy, nostalgic haze. Look at the way the mountains in the background sort of loom, like giants peering over a tiny village. The buildings in the foreground, including the brewery, seem so small, almost like toys! The surface of the water in the lower portion of the photograph is still, reflecting the muted light of the scene. The bridge over the water creates a horizon line that suggests how our eye navigates the image, from front to back, from near to far, until the whole picture seems like a stage set. Gabler reminds me a little of some early landscape photographers like Gustave Le Gray, finding a kind of sublime beauty in everyday scenes. This piece shows how photographs, like paintings, don’t just record reality, they construct ways of seeing and experiencing the world.