Kanopan Oeloe - Affaire Klein 1931

This black and white photograph titled 'Kanopan Oeloe - Affaire Klein' was taken in 1931 by an anonymous artist and what strikes me is the use of light and shadow. It's like they're playing with these elements to create depth and texture. It feels raw, almost like a quick sketch, but there's a lot of attention to detail. You can really see how the image-making process is unfolding. The material aspects of the work are striking. The greyscale is not flat, it has these subtle variations and the surface of the photograph itself appears to have a bit of texture, almost like a painting. Looking at the lines of the trees, you can see the different types of vegetation and the way the artist handled the light really helps the leaves stand out. There is a strong emotional resonance created by the image, perhaps of something lost, abandoned, or neglected. When I look at the work of someone like Bernd and Hilla Becher, who also worked with photography, I see a similar interest in documenting the world around them in a direct and unpretentious way. This piece embraces ambiguity and multiple interpretations over fixed meanings.