Struik bedekt met rijp in Voorst c. 1900 - 1930

Richard Tepe made this photograph, ‘Struik bedekt met rijp in Voorst’ with a camera and photographic paper, but without a date, imagine that! The monochrome palette feels fragile. It has a quiet beauty, as if Tepe was trying to capture something fleeting, a transient moment in nature. When you look closely, you can see the texture of the frost on the branches. It's as if each tiny crystal has been meticulously rendered, creating a sense of depth and dimension. I wonder if he was chasing the light that morning, like painters do with colour? There’s one branch that extends out to the right. The light catches the frost, making it look like a constellation of tiny stars. It feels so delicate; like a single breath could shatter the whole thing. Caspar David Friedrich comes to mind, because both he and Tepe find something spiritual in nature, but Tepe is more focused on the immediate, sensory experience. For both of them art is a space to contemplate our relationship with the natural world, inviting us to slow down and appreciate the beauty of impermanence.