Landschap met waterpartij before 1901

This landscape with water was made by Alfred Horsley Hinton sometime between 1863 and 1908. It’s a photograph, but it almost feels like a drawing, the way the tones blend softly into each other. It reminds me that artmaking is about processes; how we move from one mark to the next, one decision to another. Look at the surface – it’s so still and reflective, you can see how the reeds meet the water, and how the sky is all swirly with moodiness. It's pretty muted. The texture isn't exactly rough, but it is definitely present, like a memory of something that once was. It’s like those slightly out-of-focus photos that have all the feels. The whole piece, with its soft edges and dreamy atmosphere, feels like a conversation about seeing, about how we perceive and capture the world around us. Hinton's work reminds me a little bit of Corot, who also found poetry in the everyday landscape. Just like painting, photography, for Hinton, is an open ended conversation between observation and expression.