Le Paysage Spatial (Mirage) 1962

This dreamlike black-and-white photograph by Jaroslav Rössler presents an unsettling view of the landscape. It’s all vertical lines and ambiguous horizons, with the world reflected above and below. I imagine Rössler out there with his camera, trying to capture something just beyond what the eye can see, a spatial game of perception. He was part of the avant-garde movement in Czech photography, so he was probably thinking hard about how to represent reality in new ways, maybe challenging our sense of depth and space. The lines of the electricity poles feel so insistent and grounded, while everything else seems to dissolve into this hazy, mirrored effect. It makes you question what’s real and what’s just a reflection, or a trick of the eye. I guess artists across the world, not just Rössler, are trying to show that what we see isn’t always what we get, it’s a conversation across time.