Drie afbeeldingen van een vrouw die een zwaan voert, een zeilboot en een schipper en een vrouw voor een zeilboot op de oever van de Elbe 1894

These three adjacent photographic images were produced by Wilhelm Dreesen, and capture scenes of life along the Elbe River. Rendered in muted greyscale tones, the composition invites us to consider the interplay between human activity and the natural world. Dreesen’s focus on the structure of each panel is striking. The leftmost panel presents a woman elegantly posed, seemingly engaged in a dialogue with a swan. The central panel shifts to a tranquil scene of a sailboat gliding across the water, its reflection mirroring the physical form above. The final panel shows a woman and a shipman by the water. The arrangement functions almost like a triptych, yet subverts traditional religious connotations through its depiction of secular, everyday scenes. In each panel, the balance between the figures and their environment offers a commentary on modernity's evolving relationship with nature. Dreesen uses photography to capture slices of life, framing the ephemeral moments that define human experience.