Schoorsteenboezem van Nieuwe Rijn 10 te Leiden 1911

This photograph captures a chimney breast in a house on Nieuwe Rijn in Leiden. It’s hard to say exactly when it was taken, but it has the soft sepia tones of an old photograph. I wonder about the person who created it, maybe someone working in Monumentenzorg, carefully documenting this interior. They probably spent a lot of time in this room, looking at the plasterwork, trying to capture its delicate details. The light is soft and diffused, almost as if they were trying to preserve the memory of the space. The fireplace is really interesting, like a bas-relief sculpture. You can imagine running your fingers over its surface, tracing the curves of the leaves and flowers. I see so much potential, so many possibilities in the way the light falls, it's like a conversation across time.