Mäabo 1903 - 1910

Hendrik Doijer made this photograph, Mäabo, sometime between 1863 and 1925 with that process of light and chemistry. It looks like a scene of disruption. The image is made of a grey scale, but the tones are very rich, and this gives the image a sense of drama, even of threat. Look at the surface of the water, which is capturing reflections of the buildings behind it. What is actually there, what is only a trace? There is a tension between surface and depth, between reality and illusion. This reminds me of the work of Eugène Atget, who was active around the same time. Both artists are interested in the world around them, but they also seem to be drawn to the melancholy, to the ephemeral nature of things. And like my own paintings, these photographs seem to suggest that the world is always changing, always in flux.