Gezicht op Kasteel Wittem 1890 - 1920

This photograph of Gezicht op Kasteel Wittem, was made by an anonymous photographer with I guess a camera, no date on it. I mean, look at this dreamy sepia tone washing over everything. It's like time itself is the pigment here, fading and softening the edges of reality. You can almost feel the weight of history pressing down, each brick, each leaf, a tiny piece of a giant puzzle. The photographer’s not trying to hide anything. There’s texture here too, the rough surface of the stone, the delicate tracery of branches against the sky. There’s something so compelling, maybe comforting about the lack of information on this image. It feels like the type of image an artist like Atget would make – but is it art, or is it archival? Does that matter? Photography is an ongoing conversation, and so this piece reminds us that uncertainty is where things get interesting.