Landhoofd van de brug over de Oude Maas in aanbouw aan de linkeroever bij Spijkenisse

This photograph was taken by Arnaud Pistoor and Zoon in August 1900, and you can tell it’s a photograph because it’s concerned with what's actually *there*. I'm struck by the scaffolding in the foreground, like a formal experiment, a structure that mimics the bridge and the landscape that will be built up. Its not unlike a painting; that initial layer of marks that bears little resemblance to the finished piece, but informs everything that follows. Look closely at the space within the scaffolding, like a canvas. What do you see? Mud, water, shadow? It's all the same, just different shades, like an Agnes Martin grid. The photograph offers a glimpse into the making of something significant, but like all making it begins with a single mark, a muddy mess that is both nothing and everything at once. I am reminded of Bernd and Hilla Becher, whose grids of industrial architecture are a study in repetition, difference and the poetry of the everyday.