Uitgegraven goemoek op Oost van Oost. (October 1926.) 1926

This photograph, taken in October 1926, shows a view of Uitgegraven goemoek op Oost van Oost. It's by an anonymous artist, so we can't look to any other work for context, we have to just dive in. The photograph’s textures are really something – the rough, striated surfaces of the dugout earth contrast with the smoother, almost velvety tones in the mid-ground. The light is distributed so that you get a real sense of dimensionality. It's almost sculptural, right? Look at the way the anonymous photographer has captured the light as it falls on the jagged edges of the excavated earth. The deep blacks against the greys give the landscape a really striking almost abstract quality. The composition is all about lines, leading your eye through the excavated site. It reminds me a little of some of the landscapes that Marsden Hartley was painting around that time, though of course that's just one way of seeing it. There are no right answers, just different kinds of looking.