Schepen in de haven van Zaandam 1904

James Higson made this small photograph of boats in Zaandam harbour sometime around the turn of the century. He used a sepia tone, giving the image a warm, nostalgic feel, like a memory fading at the edges. It's the kind of photograph you might find tucked away in an old album, each faded print a little portal to another time. Looking at this, I'm drawn to the way the light reflects on the water, turning the reflections of the boats into ghostlike doubles. See how the masts create a network of lines reaching up into the sky, almost like a musical score? Higson’s composition is deceptively simple, but the closer you look, the more you realize how carefully he's arranged the elements. There’s the small rowboat sitting serenely in the foreground, mirroring the larger ships behind. This makes me think of other harbor scenes painted by artists like Johan Jongkind, who was obsessed with capturing the play of light on water, or even Whistler, who sought to evoke mood and atmosphere. Higson may not be a painter, but he is similarly attuned to the tonal effects of light and shade. Art is just one long, ongoing conversation, isn’t it?