Foto uit archief Jan Veth c. 1902 - 1929

Curator: Oh, hello there. Look, we're standing before a gelatin silver print called "Foto uit archief Jan Veth", or "Photo from the Jan Veth Archive," dating roughly from 1902 to 1929, here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: It feels so hushed, doesn't it? Like peering into a secret. All these receding doorways, a muted sort of poetry, it gives me a calm sense of loneliness. Curator: It’s remarkable how Veth captured depth here, isn’t it? You're drawn through this almost dream-like composition. The geometry is impeccable. Notice the series of receding rectangles. A room leads into another. And finally, it’s capped with a bright, almost aggressively centred window. The repetition of vertical lines between the door frames, shelves and chairs gives it a structural, if a bit overwhelming, quality. Editor: Overwhelming maybe. But something about that back room is compelling; maybe it is that sharp burst of window. It has an unsettling draw, with that blurred person sitting by it. Makes you want to write their story. To think they don’t know they’re in a photograph in a future museum. Funny how light in photographs does that to me; creates the feeling of both future and past all at once. I wish I knew their secrets, the picture itself feels like it has secrets hidden from us in these inky tones. Curator: Well, I find the textures are part of those secrets. Look at the rich fabric of the foreground chair contrasted with the smooth paneling on the walls. Or the soft diffusion of light throughout the scene, giving it this airy, ethereal quality. A masterful interplay of form and tone to draw the eye to particular spaces. Editor: Yes, exactly. This feels like more than just an interior, or someone simply experimenting with receding space; it’s capturing the essence of time itself. Curator: It's true. And that makes it endlessly fascinating. Editor: Fascinating indeed. Something in its silence. It holds so much.