Knotwilg c. 1900 - 1940

Richard Tepe made this photograph, Knotwilg, with a camera and photographic paper sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. It's a tree, yes, but it’s also about the way the light falls, soft and hazy, almost like a memory. Look closely, and you can see the texture of the bark, the delicate branches reaching up, and the way the water seems to blur into the sky. There is a split in the trunk, and a spray of small white flowers blooming. It's this interplay of light, texture, and form that really grabs me. It makes me think about how we see, and what we choose to focus on. The physicality of the image, the paper, the tones—it all adds to the feeling of a moment captured, a fleeting glimpse of something beautiful. Like the paintings of Gerhard Richter, this photograph reminds us that art is not just about representation, but about the process of seeing, and the way our perceptions shape our understanding of the world. It’s an invitation to slow down, to look closely, and to find beauty in the everyday.