Meetkamp in oerbosch 1903 - 1910

Hendrik Doijer made this photograph, "Meetkamp in oerbosch," sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century, and it's printed in shades of gray. The darks really pull you in, don't they? Like looking into a dense, almost impenetrable space. The photograph has a kind of immediacy, a directness. You can almost feel the humidity, the thickness of the air. It's funny how a flat image can evoke such a sensory experience. I’m drawn to the small hut, almost swallowed up by the greenery. It makes me think about what’s hidden, what's obscured. About how we only ever see fragments of a larger picture. There's something so human about the attempt to capture a moment, even knowing it's always slipping away. Like a conversation with another artist, each piece builds on what came before, and opens up possibilities for what comes next. There’s never a final word, just a continuing exploration.