Gedeelte van het Huis Loowaard te Duiven 1907

This photograph of Gedeelte van het Huis Loowaard te Duiven has been captured by an anonymous photographer working for Monumentenzorg. The photograph shows a slice of a building with a barred window. I wonder, what was it like to stand here, looking at this building. You know, when you look at old buildings, there’s always a feeling of uncertainty. I imagine the photographer wanted to record and protect a building that was, even then, disappearing. The grays are layered one on top of each other: wall, window, building, foliage. It’s all so perfectly still, so well composed, so serious. I guess what I’m saying is that this isn’t just a picture of a wall or a window. It’s a document of time. It’s a statement that says, 'I was here, I saw this, and I wanted to preserve it.' And even though it’s just a photograph, it manages to capture something about what it means to keep looking, to keep looking back.