Gezicht op de Universiteit van Harderwijk 1910

This snapshot of the University of Harderwijk, well, we don’t know who made it or when. It’s a picture that feels like it's emerging from a dream, with its soft focus and muted tones that feel like a memory fading at the edges. Looking at the way the light catches the cobblestones, each one a tiny facet reflecting the sky, you can tell it's a real place, yet there is something indefinite about the figures standing in the road. I love how the whole image feels washed with a sepia tone, like looking through a vintage filter, that makes the photograph feel both distant and intimate. The texture of the buildings and the trees are just visible, but they are simplified and almost flattened out. It reminds me of Eugène Atget’s Parisian street scenes, or even some of the early impressionists, more interested in mood than sharp detail. It's a reminder that art, even in its most documentary forms, is always a negotiation between what is seen and what is felt.