Niagara Falls (Horse Shoe), Verenigde Staten/Canada 1936

Wouter Cool made this black and white photograph of Niagara Falls sometime in the early 20th century. It's a reminder that artmaking, even with a camera, is always about process. Look how the water falls, a curtain of grey, and then explodes into a mist of white. The light here isn't just captured; it's almost painted onto the scene, blurring the edges, softening the harshness of the falls, and turning it into something ethereal. Notice that line of foliage on the right, like a sketchy annotation. It’s almost as though Cool is reminding us that even the wildest natural scenes have a frame, a border. This piece makes me think of Gerhard Richter’s blurry paintings, not just in the greyscale palette but in the way both artists play with focus and ambiguity. Cool is doing something similar here, asking us to see beyond the literal representation of the falls and to feel the raw energy and sublime beauty of nature. Ultimately, art is about opening up possibilities, not closing them down.