Mensen op een brug, met op de voorgrond bloeiende blauweregen, in Kameido, Tokyo, Japan before 1903

This photograph of a bridge in Kameido, Tokyo, festooned with wisteria, was probably made with hand-painted albumen silver print by Kusakabe Kimbei. The coloring is so delicate, like the thinnest watercolor washes – such a contrast to the darkroom wizardry we have now! Kimbei's focus on texture is what grabs me – the silky falls of the wisteria, the rough-hewn wooden supports of the bridge, even the glassy surface of the water reflecting it all back. Notice how the colors in the water are inverted and slightly more chaotic, creating this sense of depth and movement in an otherwise still scene. It's like Kimbei is saying, hey, look closer, there's always more than meets the eye. It reminds me of Atget, who was working at roughly the same time, documenting a changing Paris. Both photographers seemed to understand that the beauty is in the details, in the ephemeral moments that make up a place and time.