Tijdens een wandeling hoog in de bergen op een gletscher in de Harz c. 1903 - 1908

Geldolph Adriaan Kessler made this photograph, "Tijdens een wandeling hoog in de bergen op een gletscher in de Harz," sometime in the early 20th century. I imagine Kessler trekking up this icy mountain, lugging his camera equipment, looking for the right angle. It's a solitary, thoughtful process. Is he thinking about the sublime? About nature's indifference? Or is he just trying to get a good shot? The figures trudging across the snow look so small against the vast, indifferent landscape, don’t they? The sepia tones give the scene a kind of timeless quality, like it could be from any era. It reminds me of other artists, like Caspar David Friedrich, grappling with similar ideas about humans and nature. Ultimately, this photograph feels like part of a much larger conversation about how we see ourselves in the world, how we try to capture its beauty and its terror, and how we keep pushing ourselves to see things in new ways.