Gezicht op het voormalige jachtslot van Oldenbarnevelt of Torenzicht te Poeldijk 1904

This photograph of the former hunting lodge of Oldenbarnevelt in Poeldijk was created by an anonymous photographer. It's a muted world of creams and browns. A central rectangle reveals a building, its windows shuttered as if in a dream, obscured by the hazy atmosphere. The lack of contrast is striking, lending an air of softness to what must have been a solid edifice. It's hard to know what tools or processes were employed in its making, but the image has a slightly faded quality. What I am drawn to are the branches in the foreground, a flurry of scratchy lines obscuring the lower floors. This screen of organic growth softens the hard lines of the building, and it echoes the muted tones of the architecture. It reminds me of some of the work of Eugène Atget, whose photographs of Paris offer a glimpse into a lost world. It reminds us that art is a dialogue, a conversation across time. In the end, it’s really about ambiguity. We're not meant to know everything.