Gedeelte van de kasteelruïne te Batenburg 1906

This photograph, Gedeelte van de kasteelruïne te Batenburg, was made by an anonymous photographer using I presume photographic paper. It's a muted, sepia scene that feels both ancient and immediate. Look at how the photographer plays with texture – the crumbling brick, the murky water, the bare trees against the sky. It's all about surfaces, about how things feel to the touch, or would if we were there. The tone is soft, creating a sense of nostalgia, like a memory fading at the edges. I keep coming back to the reflection in the water. It's not perfect, not a clear mirror image, but a distorted, dreamy version of the ruin. It reminds me of how art is always a kind of reflection, a taking apart and reassembling of the world. Like Piranesi's etchings of Roman ruins, here is another melancholic scene. It's a reminder that everything changes, decays, and is eventually reclaimed by time.