Steiger en boten op het meer Danau Lauttawar 1903 - 1913

This is a photograph of 'Steiger en boten op het meer Danau Lauttawar', or 'Pier and boats on Lake Danau Lauttawar,' made sometime in the past by an anonymous photographer. The way the light falls in this image, it’s like watching a dance, with shadows and reflections moving together. Look at the texture of the water around the wooden supports of the pier. See how the rippling surface creates a broken, almost abstract pattern. There's a back-and-forth thing going on here between the solid and the liquid, between the made and the natural. Even the clouds seem like a soft, blurred version of the water's surface. The whole image feels like it's made of these kinds of echoes. This play with light and texture reminds me of some of Gerhard Richter's blurry, out-of-focus paintings. Both artists seem interested in capturing the way light and shadow can transform our perceptions of reality. They help us see that there's always more than one way to look at the world.