Interieur van de Paterskerk te Groningen c. 1890 - 1920

Johannes Gerardus Kramer made this photograph of the Paterskerk in Groningen at an unknown date, using a gelatin silver print. The tones pull toward the sepia end of things, which gives everything a kind of dreamy quality. It’s kind of like looking at a memory rather than a place, exactly. The whole picture plane is activated by that light, which falls down from those high windows. The light is almost like a physical thing, like a kind of mist that is both present and absent. Kramer doesn’t fuss over details; instead, the image gives us a more emotional space that resonates through light and shadow. It reminds me of Atget, who photographed the streets of Paris at the turn of the last century. They share a common sensibility, both looking at the world with a sort of quiet reverence, each trying to capture the ephemeral qualities of light as it moves across surfaces. It reminds us that art is always in conversation with itself, across time and space.