Vergadering van de directie van de Handelsvereniging Amsterdam (HVA) 1929

This anonymous photograph captures a meeting of the board of the Amsterdam Trade Association, using a monochrome palette that strips away distractions. Look at how the light catches the faces; each is a study in concentration, or perhaps, a weariness. The image is a record, but it's also a construction. The way the figures are arranged, almost a frieze, tells a story of hierarchy and shared purpose. Notice the papers on the table; each document is another piece of the puzzle, another layer in the narrative of commerce and industry. The graininess of the photograph almost gives the scene a feeling of abstraction. It makes you consider how the anonymous artist creates a sense of place and time through tonal variation. There's a parallel here to someone like Gerhard Richter, in the way that the photographic image is mined for its conceptual potential, and embraced for its imperfections. It asks us to consider how we construct meaning from the everyday, and how art can be found in the most unlikely of places.