Riviergezicht door de vallei van een bebosd berglandschap. c. 1903

Curator: Right then. Shall we dive into Frits Freerks Fontein Fz.'s captivating "River View Through the Valley of a Wooded Mountain Landscape," captured circa 1903. It's photography at its most Impressionistic. Editor: Whoa, instantly, I'm thinking fairytales, misty mornings, a little spooky, you know? The muted tones really set the stage. And the river… it feels like it’s rushing into another world, like straight out of a Germanic myth. Curator: It's incredible how Fontein, using photography, taps into that feeling, that yearning for the romantic. Water, especially, always seems to carry a wealth of associations in landscape traditions: purification, passage, the ebb and flow of time... Editor: Definitely a river of time thing. The soft focus makes it feel ancient, weathered down and timeless. It's interesting too how you almost can't tell where the water begins or the landscape ends... I guess it really invites that idea of continuity. The image is literally seamless, flowing through time, in the moment it's been shot and lasting for eternity! Curator: It’s a powerful visual metaphor. Notice, too, how the dense, almost claustrophobic forest presses in from either side. It really draws your eye toward that vanishing point far in the distance... Editor: ...Where we just *know* there's some wise hermit or, more likely, a dragon guarding all the knowledge of the universe, and honestly, I can’t help but want to follow it. Maybe because that dark and hazy end is all imagination at the moment. A void, yes. Curator: Perhaps that's precisely the invitation. The symbolic potential here feels boundless, really. As an impressionistic piece, one can interpret the photograph as representative of one's inner soul and deepest yearning and most intimate dreams. Editor: It’s the power of suggestion, isn't it? It lets the viewer become the storyteller and even better... make this landscape theirs. The photographer becomes us, for an era and more to come. Curator: Well said! Thank you. Editor: Thank you.