Dansen en Heerenstraat 1925 - 1935

These two photographs, by Theodoor Brouwers, are gelatin silver prints pasted into an album. It's like a visual diary, where each image is a little portal into another time and place. I find the contrast between the two images fascinating. On the left, there's this casual scene of children, maybe a game or a lesson, all captured in a soft, grainy light. And on the right, a more formal composition of buildings, stark and geometric against the sky. Look at the surface of the prints. The way the light catches the silver gives it this luminous quality. And the torn edges of the paper add a tactile element, a sense of the hand at work. It’s not about perfection, but about the raw, unfiltered experience of seeing. It reminds me of Bernd and Hilla Becher, in the way it approaches themes of seriality and documentation. Art isn't just about making pretty pictures. It's about how we look, how we remember, and how we make sense of the world around us.