Gedeelte van de Sint-Petrus'-Bandenkerk te Leende 1904

This photograph of the Sint-Petrus'-Bandenkerk in Leende has no date or identified photographer, so we can only imagine what this image means. The church is presented almost as an abstraction, a series of planes receding into space. The photograph is sepia-toned, muting the colors and creating a sense of distance, a view back into the past. The surface is smooth, which makes you think about how the photo has stood the test of time. The fence in the foreground is what I keep returning to. It’s so sharp and clear, a kind of screen, that both separates and frames our view. Maybe the fence is meant to keep us out, or maybe it's there to guide our gaze, to help us see the church in a new light. It reminds me of some of the early architectural studies by Bernd and Hilla Becher, who also found a strange beauty in the industrial landscape. Like the Bechers’ work, this photograph invites us to look closely, to find the extraordinary in the ordinary, and to see the world with new eyes.