Wootton Church from the road before 1912

This is Henry Taunt's "Wootton Church from the road," a small photograph from around the turn of the century. Looking at the grainy textures and soft focus, you get a sense of the real, lived-in world that Taunt was capturing. The composition is simple – the church, a few trees, a bit of the road, but it’s the way the light falls that grabs me. The church isn’t crisply defined, it's more like a memory, a fleeting impression of a place. The tonal range is very narrow, which gives it a dreamlike quality, like you're peering into a faded dream. It reminds me a little of the paintings of Corot, who was also interested in capturing the feeling of a place, rather than a purely representational image. And, like Corot, Taunt’s photograph isn’t about perfection, it's about feeling, about evoking a mood, a memory, a moment in time. It’s a reminder that art isn't just about what you see, but how it makes you feel.