Arrenslee met een paard c. 1900 - 1915

This photograph by C. J. Cruijff shows a horse-drawn sleigh in what looks like the Dutch countryside. It's a quiet scene, full of winter light. The tonal range of this image has a beautiful clarity, it really captures that feeling of cold air and bright sun on fresh snow. All of this is built through tiny variations and gradations of tone. I love that the artist chose this moment, not of action, but of stillness. The whole scene is built out of so many small details - the bare trees, the horse's tack, the faces of the two figures in the sleigh. Each of these tiny marks seems to point to the larger whole. This photograph shares a certain sensibility with the work of Eugène Atget, another artist whose work I think about a lot. Like him, Cruijff seems to find something special in the everyday. Art making is a process of finding and revealing these hidden qualities.