Luchtvaartdag te Seoul 1952 - 1959

David Ketel captured this image of an Aviation Day in Seoul with a small-format camera sometime in the mid-20th century. What strikes me about this picture is the soft, dreamy quality of the light and the way the clouds seem to float effortlessly across the sky. The planes are tiny specks, almost like an afterthought, but they add a sense of scale and movement to the scene. The surface is smooth, but with that distinctive photographic grain of mid-century film. If you look closely at the upper left corner, you'll see a cluster of planes, each one a tiny gesture, a small mark against the vastness of the sky. It's easy to imagine him standing there, squinting into the viewfinder, trying to capture a fleeting moment in time. Ketel's photograph reminds me a little of the aerial views by Gerhard Richter, who also used photography to explore the relationship between abstraction and representation, although Richter’s are monumental in scale and ambition. Ultimately, the meaning of this work is in the eye of the beholder.