Brug over de rivier Zendeh Rud, Isfahan, Perzië Possibly 1925 - 1927

This is A.G.A. van Eelde's photograph of a bridge over the river Zendeh Rud in Isfahan, Persia. It was printed sometime in the first half of the 20th century. What strikes me first is the sheer length of it! I can feel the heaviness of the stone in those arches, this feeling of weight and the implied labour of construction. The light is desaturated, it flattens everything out in a way which makes it feel so expansive, like the image is stretching on into infinity, that tonality really captures something in the image. The surface of the riverbed in the foreground mirrors the muted tone of the sky, which is only punctuated by a line of spindly trees in the far distance. This picture doesn't attempt to give us any easy answers, it just presents us with the image of a bridge and leaves us to fill in the gaps with our own imagination. That to me, is always the most interesting thing about art, how it leaves space for us to become part of the conversation. Just think how many photos have been taken of that bridge over the years!