Straatbeeld met een uivormige kerktoren 1920 - 1940

G. Hidderley made this small photograph of a street scene with an onion-shaped church tower, we don't know when. What strikes me first is the tone; that warm, sepia wash that feels like looking at a memory. The way the light hits the buildings on the left, creating these strong shadows. There's a real attention to the texture of the brickwork, you can almost feel the roughness of the walls. And then that church tower in the distance, it’s kind of softened, like a dream. I'm reminded of Eugène Atget, who documented the streets of Paris at the turn of the century. Both artists seem to be interested in capturing the quiet beauty of everyday life, the poetry in the ordinary. There is something so lovely about the lack of clarity here, the way it suggests so much while defining so little. Art is like that, isn't it? A conversation, a feeling, a moment captured and shared.