Roofs in Mala Strana 1924

Jan Lauschmann made this sepia print, "Roofs in Mala Strana", sometime in the 20th century. It's all about texture, see? The way the light catches those uneven roof tiles, the rough stucco on the buildings. It's like he's trying to feel the city through his lens. Look at the way the rooftops pile up, each one a little different, a little off-kilter. There's a kind of scrappy beauty to it, a sense of things being just a little bit out of control. Then your eye is drawn to one specific window ajar in the middle ground, which disrupts the pattern and makes you wonder what could be going on inside. It reminds me a little of Atget's photos of Paris, that same feeling of capturing a city in all its messy, imperfect glory. Art, like cities, is always in flux. It's about embracing the chaos, the unexpected, the things that don't quite fit.