Vissersboten in de haven van Douarnenez 1901

This photograph of fishing boats in Douarnenez harbour, made by Delizy, is tiny, only a few inches high. It is fascinating how a relatively simple palette of neutral tones, the sepia of the print and variations within it, can create such an involving image. What I notice first are the many vertical lines created by the masts of the ships, which reach upwards out of the harbour. The repetition draws the eye upwards but also across the image, taking in the density of the boats. From these many verticals we see the curved shapes of the boats themselves, and the soft reflections in the water. The sepia tone makes the boats look old, historical, even though they are probably contemporary to the photo itself. Look at the foreground, you can see two people, they are blurry, captured in motion. The whole scene is a little blurry, and has a quality that reminds me of Gerhard Richter’s paintings, in which the blurriness serves to create an image that is both there and not there.