Gezicht op de Hervormde kerk te Leur 1890 - 1920

This photograph of the Gezicht op de Hervormde kerk te Leur was made some time ago by an anonymous artist. The tones in this sepia photograph are so muted and narrow, that they remind me of Gerhard Richter’s grey paintings. I love the way the soft focus gives a dreamlike feel to the image, like it's fading into memory. You can almost feel the dampness in the stone and the quiet of the surrounding fields. It’s the texture that really grabs me – the rough surface of the building set against the smooth, almost featureless sky. Look closely at the windows, how they are dark voids in the façade. It makes me think about how we look at things, how we choose to remember certain details and let others fade away. It is a reminder that art, like memory, is not about perfect replication, but about the way we make sense of the world.