Onbekend persoon bij een woning die uitkijkt over een meer before 1920

This photograph, "Onbekend persoon bij een woning die uitkijkt over een meer," was taken by Donald Mennie, sometime before 1944. I love how the sepia tones evoke a sense of nostalgia, like a half-remembered dream. The image is so delicately composed, with the branches framing the building and the figure standing at the balustrade. What I like about photography is that it captures a moment, an atmosphere, in a way that painting sometimes struggles to do, especially the light, which gives the whole thing this atmospheric, soft glow. It’s almost as if Mennie is capturing the light more than the scene itself. It reminds me a little of early 20th-century pictorialism, where photography tried to emulate painting. Like, are we looking at a photograph that wants to be a painting? Or a painting that knows it can never be quite as immediate as a photograph? Questions, questions! Either way, it reminds us that art is always a conversation, always borrowing and reinterpreting, and always a little bit of a mystery.