Landschappen met zee en water te Texel 1931 - 1935

Berti Hoppe made this landscape piece, “Landschappen met zee en water te Texel,” using monochrome photographs assembled on paper to create a journey through place. I feel for Berti here, trying to capture the subtleties of a landscape with such limited means. I wonder, what was it like to look through that lens and decide where to point? What sort of internal weather was she experiencing at the time? I mean, each of these photographs contains a whole world, right? From the sea to a shipwreck, to the horizon, which always reminds me of a question mark… That strip of grey-blue on the horizon is like a held breath. Berti’s choices have weight, and invite us into a conversation about seeing, memory, and place. Like Gerhard Richter said, " Painting is the only language I know..." which is so true. We are all always trying to figure it out, aren’t we?