Afrikaanse baobab en twee zebra's in Makuleke, Zuid-Afrika 1968

Willem Jacob van den Berg made this snapshot of a Baobab tree and some Zebras in Makuleke, South Africa. Looking at these photographs I am reminded of the quiet moments an artist spends alone with their work, wrestling with color and form. Imagine van den Berg carefully framing these shots, trying to compress the enormity of the landscape into these little squares. I wonder what he was thinking when he clicked the shutter? Did he see the baobab as a symbol of resilience, its bulbous trunk reaching up to the sky? Or was he simply captivated by the way the light filtered through its spindly branches? What I like about these photographs is their humbleness, capturing a brief instant in time of this vast landscape. Painters, like photographers, find inspiration in the world around them and are in a constant dialog and exchange of ideas. Willem Jacob van den Berg's photographs invite us to see this landscape through his eyes and in doing so, we enter into a conversation that stretches across continents and time.