Gezicht op de waterpoort te Gorinchem 1890 - 1915

This photograph, "Gezicht op de waterpoort te Gorinchem", was made by an anonymous artist. I’m really drawn to how soft and gentle this image is. The muted tones almost give it a watercolor feel. I’m imagining the artist standing there, maybe on a slightly overcast day, carefully framing the shot. The architecture itself is so interesting - the waterpoort is half-hidden by trees. Did they do that on purpose? I wonder what it was like to be there, setting up the shot, feeling the weight of the camera, and then snapping the picture. It’s easy to think about photography as purely representational, but here you feel the artist's hand, their specific way of seeing. It almost feels like I'm there with them. All artists, no matter the medium, build on what has come before. We make our own stuff by having conversations with the past. Each artwork we make is an attempt to express something new, a kind of conversation, that invites everyone to participate.