S.O. Goenoengsari. Administrateurswoning. 1 Juni 1927. 1927

This photograph, S.O. Goenoengsari. Administrateurswoning, was taken on June 1, 1927, by an anonymous artist. The tones, all greyscale, work together to produce a document of a building. I am always fascinated by the material reality of art, of how things are made. In this image, I notice the variations in tone and texture in the surface of the photograph. It feels almost like I could reach out and touch it, feel the grain of the paper. Look at the sky, how it is slightly smudged and blurry, adding a sense of depth. It feels like a soft atmospheric wash in a painting. Even though it's a photograph, this surface texture reminds me that there are human decisions behind this image, like choosing the camera and developing the film. This photograph reminds me of the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher, who photographed industrial structures with a similar attention to detail and form. Art is an ongoing conversation, and even an anonymous photograph can participate in this dialogue. It's a conversation about seeing, about feeling, about experiencing the world in new ways.